


Shattered Huntress Reformed Ice Cream

by Axle007



Category: RWBY
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, F/F, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2018-11-21
Packaged: 2019-04-21 04:19:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 51,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14276763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Axle007/pseuds/Axle007
Summary: Slight Volume 3 onwards AU, Cinder takes Ruby after she uses her silver eyes to freeze the dragon, Neo sets out to avenge Roman. Summary's are a pain.





	1. Chapter 1

Shattered Huntress; Reformed Ice Cream.

Chapter one:

“Come on”

Panting from exhaustion Ruby jumps atop the remains of Beacon Tower, legs weak and arms aching her eyes snap on to the kneeling Pyrrha only to see her friend with an arrow through the chest looking up at her assailant. Witnessing her ashes blow away, overcome with emotion Ruby screams as her eyes shimmer and envelope Beacon Tower in a blinding light.

“WHAT!”

Cinder’s right eye snaps open, leaning against the remains of Ozpin’s desk she looks over seeing the collapsed body of Ruby Rose. _That damn child_ , she thought; _Little young to unlock her eyes, oh well_ _She won’t be able to use them for much longer_. Attempting to reach her left arm out she screams.

“She broke my arm”

Using her left arm bracing against the desk she stands, walking slowly towards Ruby’s body. Collapsing to her knees towering over her unconscious victim, Cinder grabs Ruby’s scruff of her neck yanking her up to be face to face. _To think you almost ruined everything_ , looking over towards the dragon she realizes Ruby must have frozen it in place, scowling back at Ruby she spat.

“YOU RUINED EVERYTHING”

Slowly that scowl turned into a raised eyebrow then a malicious grin. _You may yet prove useful with your willingness to interfere with her plans_. Placing the collapsed Crescent Rose on Ruby’s chest she grabs her leg, carelessly dragging her away and towards the rendezvous where Mercury and Emerald were undoubtedly waiting.

…. 5 minutes later

Using the momentum from Harbinger, Qrow jumps atop the Tower.

“RUBY! Where are you kiddo?”

_Hmm Weiss said you went to help Pyrrha_ , scanning the area noticing the discarded circlet and shield of Pyrrha his eyes fell on the blood on Ozpin’s desk. Following the trail, he comes across the sudden smell of smouldering strawberries.

“RUBY”

Becoming increasingly alarmed and erratic Qrow frantically starts scouring the remains of the tower for any further remains of Ruby, to no avail.

 

… A few months later

Dragging her feet in the snow Neo became increasingly annoyed at her current predicament, rethinking the chain of thought that made her think this was a good idea. Thinking back, Spending weeks looking for Roman she finally managed to gain access to the crashed Atlas airship she last saw Roman fighting that Red brat. Cutting through grim she made her way to the bridge, using the remains of Cinder’s virus she scours the security footage until her worst fears were confirmed. Seeing Roman standing atop Ruby victorious only to be enveloped in the mouth of a nevermore.

Collapsing in the snow she starts to cry. _Damn Cinder, I knew it was a bad idea to use grim but would Roman listen, far too caught up in staying that godforsaken woman’s good side._ _I’ll make cinder pay for forcing Roman to be in that situation_. Recomposing herself she stands, looking at the sign she smiles _Finally, this place is far to secluded_.

Welcome to Patch, home of Signal Academy Combat School.

…

Neo braces herself hand against the wooden door, again rethinking her plan. _If there’s anyone who’s going to help me track down Cinder, it’s these brats._ Recomposing herself she knocks twice hearing the bang echo deep within the house. A few minutes pass and just as she’s about to knock again the door swings open revealing the towering presence of someone who’s assuredly a huntsman she scans him over noticing his blond her succumbing to grey, his eyes sullen accompanied with bags under them his face framed in a neutral expression of intrigue.

“Can I help you?”

Quickly reaching into her pocket she retrieves her scroll. Typing _I’m looking for Red_ she shows it to the huntsmen.

“Red?... oh, you must mean Ru… she’s not here right now”

Typing “ _Where is she?”_

Neo knew Ruby couldn’t be anywhere else she saw the brats friends were in Signal buying supplies, the blonde and pink one following green around like misbehaving children arguing over a team name.

“Look it’s best if you came in and took a seat, it’s cold outside and this is gonna take a while”

Cautiously nodding Neo agreed as the huntsman stepped aside holding the door she walked inside, taking note of her surrounding she turns back to see him close the door behind her.

 

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Neo walked towards the centre of the room, taking a seat in the middle of the sofa as the huntsman sat in the chair next to her. To her left Neo noticed an empty dog bed while the walls were covered with various pictures of Anima and a curious lack of family photos, however the house still carried with it a clear warmth even with the dread in the air. The huntsman closed his eyes and took a deep breath, composing himself.

“Right. First things first, I’m Taiyang but call me Tai and I’m Ruby’s dad. As I said, sadly Ruby’s not here right now and in fact no one knows where she is, she’s been missing since the fall of Beacon. We’ve spent months scouring the ruins but there’s just no trace of her anywhere.”

Neo took a moment to process this, her plan was already of to a bad start if the person she wanted to use was missing and before deciding on any alternative plans needed to gain as much information as she could while she was here, slowly typing her response.

“ _I’m sorry to hear your daughter is missing, being familiar with her and her team’s antics I was hoping to help them overcome those that caused the fall of Beacon_. But if she isn’t here then why are her classmates in town?”

After reading the scroll Tai sat back into the chair looking up at the ceiling.

“The… remaining members of team JNPR are about to set of to Mistral for Haven Academy and while they’re here to try and convince Yang Ruby’s sister to join them, though I doubt that’s likely to happen considering the place she’s...”

“Hey dad do you know where Zwei… What the hell is she doing here?”

Both Neo and Tai looked up towards the stairs where at the top stood Yang in an orange tank top and brown cargo pants, most noticeably however was the knitted right sleeve indicating the lack of her arm and the clear creep of red in Yang’s eyes. Tai stood turning to his daughter.

“Now Yang… I just realized I didn’t catch your name?”

“Her name is Neo and she helped cause the fall of Beacon. YOU’RE THE REASON RUBY IS MISSING”

Neo looked towards the ground hanging her head in shame. Neo stood staring deep into Yang’s eyes while her own struggled to hold back tears, without braking eye contact she walked slowly up the stairs while typing on her scroll. Seeing Neo near to tears removed any trace of red from Yang’s eyes as she was caught off-guard by her change in emotion. Shoving the scroll in Yang’s face she had to step back to read it.

“ _You think I wanted this. That woman came to Roman and threatened him, he risked everything to protect what we had and now he’s gone because of Cinder and her psychotic plans_.”

Neo struggled to recompose herself collapsing on the stairs as the floodgates in her eyes threatened to break, Yang shocked at this turn of events was about to reach out her arm to Neo when suddenly the door knocked. All eyes locked on the door as Tai simply walked to answer it.

“People do realize this isn’t a hotel, right?”

Opening the door revealed the 3 remaining members of team JNPR, Jaune was the first to speak, reaching his right hand behind his head.

“hehe… Hey Mr Xiao-Long, is Yang home. Well of course she’s home but is she ready to speak to use today? We kinda need to be off soon and we could really use her help on finding Ruby and reaching Mistral.”

Failing to notice the clear intrusion until he had already stepped into the house Jaune tried to backtrack only to walk into Nora and Ren. Annoyed at Jaune’s interruption carefully walked around Neo down the stairs towards the Kitchen.

“What do you want Jaune?

“Ah well you see todays the day we set off for Mistral and we could really use your help in finding Ruby.”

“Look at me. My teams fallen apart, Blake ran, Weiss was taken and Ruby’s missing. Why would you want me? I can’t even fight anymore, I’m just a waste of space.”

Stretching out the remains of her right arms for emphasis.

“Yang Xiao-Long the one thing you have never been is a waste of space, sure you took a hit but what’s important is getting back up.

While speaking Tai walked over to his daughter putting his arm around her.

“And while I know your not quite ready to stand yet, never count yourself out.”

Yang smiled at her dad while team JN_R were bickering and discussing what to do. At the same time, Neo had finished fighting her eyes and stood up walking towards Yang and Tai she poked Tai’s shoulder causing him and Yang to look questioningly at her. In response she merely pointed to herself and team JN_R. Tai started laughing which promptly ended JN_Rs discussion as everybody turned to him.

“Well I do believe you guys have a volunteer though I must warn you if your going to be making the trek to Mistral you’re going to need more than just an umbrella.”

With a smirk Neo pulled from seemingly nowhere Roman’s cane giving it a spin and pointing it at Jaune who only gulped in response.

“Ha well that does it, you got spunk kid and you can clearly hold yourself in a fight. So, what do you guys say? You willing to let Neo here join you? You did say you needed help getting to Mistral after all.

Jaune, Nora and Ren all exchanged nervous glances while Nora stepped into the discussion.

“She has to promise not to kill us.”

Neo just shrugged and gave a thumbs up and as she walked over to the three she put her hands up in feigned surrender while rolling her eyes. As all four made their way to door discussing the new potential team names and how they’d overcome the communication barrier Tai noticed a crow in the distance and decided to escort them outside. Bidding them farewell Tai watched the newly formed team walk into the distance as the crow landed next to him

“Look out for them Qrow, they’re most likely the best chance to find Ruby and if that Neo girl does turn out to be a mistake then keep’em safe.”

The Crow cawed once and flew off out of site. As Tai walked back into the house closing the door after him.

 

 

 

 

… Meanwhile somewhere in Remnant

Ruby struggled against her bonds keeping her securely in the chair as Cinder sat on her lap, arm wrapped around Ruby’s neck looking straight into Ruby’s tired and bloodshot eyes while using her free arm to move some hair out of Ruby’s eye.

“We’ve been at this for months now Ruby. Are you sure you’re not feeling tired yet? You know how to end this all you have to do is ask, just ask to put on the collar”

Ruby looked at the Collar on the table eyeing its slight shimmer from its infusion with dust and the pendant which contained Cinder’s symbol in the centre. Instead of speaking she merely stared daggers at Cinder while shuffling to make it frustrating for Cinder to remain seated on her. Cinder became increasingly angry at Ruby’s continued defiance and refusal to submit. She stood up walking towards the door and turned towards Ruby, glancing over into the corner of the room that held Ruby’s belongings.

“After everything I’ve given you, I let you keep Crescent Rose, let you keep that infuriating cape, saved you from Beacon Tower and convinced Salem of your usefulness. You wouldn’t want to prove me wrong would you? Salem doesn’t handle failures well.”

Ruby continued to stare at Cinder and only huffed in response. Before leaving Cinder walked over to Ruby and flipped the switch on the IV drip that led into Ruby’s arm, dulling her senses and supressing her aura. Ruby groaned in response as she weakly hung her head, Cinder merely walked to the door taking her leave glancing back behind Ruby who unbeknownst to her stood Emerald leaning against the wall.

For Ruby the lack of sleep, drugs and torture made it harder for her to tell the difference between the real world and the dream, she resigned herself to whatever nightmares she was sure to experience. Almost instantly Yang appeared behind her resting her sole arm on Ruby’s shoulder.

“How many times do we need to go over this? You know you should just stop fighting, I mean look where that got me, look where that got Pyrrha, Look where that got Penny.”

“Yang please stop…. You’re not real”

As Yang walked around to stand in front of Ruby, Emerald copied her movement.

“oh really, if I wasn’t real then could I do this?”

In sync with the hallucination Yang and Emerald slapped Ruby across the face drawing a shock and forcing her to look up at Yang who continued her attack on Ruby.

“Look at you, if there was any proof you weren’t worthy to be our leader its now. Quivering like a scared child. You haven’t even thought of our team members have you after you abandoned them.”

“ABANDONED THEM! THEY LEFT ME! Blake Ran off, Weiss let herself get taken by her father back to Atlas. All you ever do is berate me why don’t you fuck off back home.”

“ooh such poor language dear sister. If your tired of me trying to talk some sense into then fine I’ll leave but you might regret kicking me out of your cell when its somebody less kind than me”

Syncing back up with Yang Emerald made her way to the cell door following her through leaving Ruby alone with her thoughts. Cinder was waiting on the other side for her to be done.

“So, anything interesting?”

“Let’s just say she doesn’t hold her teammates in such high regard anymore”

Cinder smirked and beckoned Emerald to follow her.

“come Salem wishes to speak to us about dear Ruby’s progress”

Emerald nodded and followed behind Cinder as they made their way into the throne room where Salem was waiting for them. In Response to Salem’s sweeping gaze Emerald stood further behind Cinder careful to not draw attention to herself, Salem simply continued to stare at the photo in her hand.

“Cinder any notable progress with the Silver eyed girl?

“Sadly, no breakthrough but we are making progress, she’s starting to be unable to tell the difference between friends and foes”

Hmm, Salem mulled over this development as her gaze rested on Emerald much to the girl’s displeasure.

“Tell me child, with this Semblance of yours can you replicate someone you’ve never seen before?”

Cinder stood to the side and nodded for Emerald to stand forward and answer.

“It will make it harder to be believable but if I’m doing it to someone who has memoires of them then yea its possible”

“use this photo and focus on her relationship with Ruby, if we can attack her foundation as a person then she should develop a lot more quickly in line with our plans. I just got word from our informant in Signal that some former students from Beacon left bound for Mistral, Ruby’s usefulness against them may be immeasurable.”

Emerald cautiously walked up to Salem and reached out for the photo. Receiving it from Salem she glanced down recognising it as one they had taken off Ruby on her arrival. It was a picture of a much younger Ruby with a much older version of Ruby except for a few differences most notably the white cape.

“who is she?”

Emerald ask although she was pretty sure of the answer.

“that my dear is Summer Rose, Ruby’s mother and her memory will serve as a perfect bridge for us to reform our little silver eyed warrior.”

Emerald took her leave a small smirk developing as numerous ideas spawned in her head.

… Back in Ruby’s cell.

Ruby slowly regained consciousness, registering firstly the pressure against her legs and the ball of red and black hair in her lap. Focusing her eyes, she was shocked to see silver ones starring back at her. Summer was sat on the floor back against ruby’s legs leaning her head backwards onto her daughter’s lap with a soft smile at her daughters’ recognition of her.

“Hey Ruby long time no see.”


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

“Hey Ruby long time no see.”

“Mom… but how are you even here?”

Summer just smiled and rolled her eyes at Ruby’s clear confusion.

“Really that’s the first thing you say. No hey mom how’s it going or even a I’ve missed you.”

Summer turned her head to either side seemingly taking in her surroundings.

“Huh, Beacon’s accommodation has certainly gone downhill hill since I was a student.”

Ruby leant her head back looking at the dark ceiling and closed her eyes.

“you know if I wanted jokes I wouldn’t’ve sent Yang away.”

Summer started laughing and stood up removing herself from Ruby. She walked around to behind Ruby and rested her head on Ruby’s shoulder.

“Who needs Yang I have the best comedian right here. Like come on Ruby Rose a huntress, that’s just as good as any of Yang’s so-called jokes.”

For emphasis Summer put her hands in front of Ruby using air quotes when saying jokes. Ruby just turned glaring at her mother snapping back.

“I am a huntress.”

Summer straightened herself placing each hand on Ruby’s shoulders.

“my dear you are barely even made it through your second year. It took my death and Raven’s abandonment for my team to collapse but yours just look at it, you sit down for a few months and everyone just leaves you. Some team leader you turned out to be.”

Just as Ruby was about to retort she was cut off by a distant explosion.

“hmm, seems like it’s going to just be me and you dear daughter everyone else will be distracted. Now, where was I? oh yea my little disappointment here. Let’s see, you were moved up 2 years, and why would you ever see that as a good thing? Nobody is going to respect someone younger than them. While to top it all off you became leader of a team named after yourself didn’t Tai teach you to be humble? Talk about narcissism.”

“You think I wanted this. Ozpin was the one who moved me, he made me team leader, I didn’t want any of that.”

Ruby hung her head as tears started to escape her eyes.

“he only wanted to use me for my eyes and look how well that went. Penny and Pyrrha are dead, grim running rampage around Beacon. It’s all his fault for this, he should have just told us what we were fighting against.”

As Summer was about to continue her verbal attack another explosion much closer struck while the sounds of gunfire and combat could be heard outside the door causing a growl to escape from Summer who started to walk from behind Ruby to her side heading for the door.

“Really I can’t get 5 minutes of quiet to talk to my…”

Summer was again cut off by a slam against the door, she merely glanced at Ruby and rolled her eyes pointing her thumb at the door.

“I can only guess that’s for you, you really couldn’t have rescheduled?”

Ruby lent her head to the side against her mother again closing her eyes in annoyance.

“You know what I take it back, I preferred it when Yang was here at least her jokes were good bad yours are just bad bad.”

At that the door suddenly swung open from an explosion just barely being able to stay onto its hinges. Both Ruby and Summers’ eyes watched the dark doorway closely as the 3 other members of team RWBY came swarming into the room standing in front of Ruby.

“RUBY!”

All 3 members shouted in unison at their leaders clearly surprised expression.

“Yang? Blake? Weiss? How are you guys here?”

Weiss stepped forward grabbing the bind on Ruby’s right hand attempting to untie it.

“You really thought you could keep us away you dolt? Never mind how let’s just get the hell out of here.”

“but I don’t understand how did you guys find me?”

At this Weiss stoop up clearly insulted at the question as Yang and Blake walked around for anything of use.

“You think the best partner of all time wouldn’t be able to find her own leader.”

Just as Ruby was about to respond the team heard uncontrollable laughter from outside the room. Weiss turned to Blake and Yang.

“check the doorway while I free Ruby”

In unison they both answered, Yang stood next to the door while Blake peered down the corridor

“You got it Princess.”

Just as Weiss turned around to snap at the pair she hears the swish of a sword and gurgling. As Weiss stood to the side out of Ruby’s field of view she sees 2 of Penny’s swords one piercing through Yang’s chest the other through Blake, both slowly collapsed onto their knees.

“YANG BLAKE nononononotagainthis is all my fault. All my fault.”

Just as she turned to Weiss 3 swords dashed through the doorway one impaling through Weiss’s chest, another through her heart and a final one in the shoulder. It was at this moment the door slammed shut. Ruby started shaking with tears in her eyes.

“Weiss please no, come on Weiss look at me your gonna be okay, its gonna be okay Weiss just keep looking at me.”

As Weiss collapsed onto the ground next to Blake and Yang Summer started clapping drawing the attention of Ruby who looked at her through blurred eyes. Summer walked and stood in front of Ruby stepping over the body of Weiss.

“Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t a leader supposed to keep her team safe?”

“WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?”

“WHY AM I? WHY DO YOU INSIST ON RISKING EVERYTHING FOR 3 PEOPLE WHO ABANDONED YOU?”

At the end of her sentence Summer reached for a chair from across the room pulling it behind Ruby sitting with their backs to each other and resting her head against Ruby’s. At this Summer closed her eyes and started to speak softly and slowly.

“Ruby a huntress is supposed to protect people, keep them safe. All Ozpin sought to do is use people. He wanted to use you for your eyes, he used my team and he continues to use Qrow and your friends. He used Pyrrha to fight a battle she couldn’t win; do you think it’s fair he continues to use children to fight his own battles.”

“You said it yourself didn’t you. I’m not a huntress so why should I care about protecting people if I can’t look after the ones I love.”

At this Summer stood dragging the chair behind her until it was in front of Ruby, the bodies of her teammates seemingly disappeared. Sitting so their knees were touching Summer leaned forwards clasping her hands into her lap.

“Don’t you see you still can. You can protect the ones you love, or you can protect the people, but you can’t do both. I abandoned my own family to protect people left you and Yang without a mother while your father had to suffer another loss.”

Summer moved so her hands were resting on each of Ruby’s bound arms atop the armrests.

“you can’t become a huntress, but you can still act like one you just have to make a choice and its an important one. Where you are now isn’t helping anyone not yourself not your own team not Ozpin or even Salem. You can however still help people. Tell me, would you rather lose everyone you love our only some. Or would you prefer that everyone else died just so a few could live?”

At the end of her speech Summer lent back crossing her arms and crossing her legs expecting an answer from Ruby who could only look at the floor the only noise being the continuous drip form the IV bag.

“I…”

“I can’t take Losing anybody else.”

“It’s a childish delusion to believe you can save everyone. What you need to recognise is there are the ones you can save and those which you can’t. Cinder has already killed 2 of your friends she even killed Ozpin, do you honestly think you could’ve stopped those? But where you are now isn’t helping anyone, if you agree to work with Salem then the people who were going to die will die anyway they just would have gotten someone else to do it but when it comes to those who matter I don’t know knock them out or something all that matters is you can be in a position to make sure they don’t die.”

Ruby sat in silence unable to meet the glare of her mother opting instead to look at the collar that remained on the table. Her mind slowly coming to the conclusion she had refused countless times before. At the continuing silence it became clear that ruby’s mind had been made and as she moved to look at her mother both her and the chair had gone, again she was left alone in the room. Silence only broken by the drip of the IV and the distant clicking of heels.

… Close by.

Emerald walked clicking her heels along the granite surface towards the throne room the importance of her message causing her to forget to knock swinging the door open interrupting the heated discussion between Hazel, Watts, Tyrian and Cinder, as Salem merely watched with annoyance all eyes turned to Emerald as her sudden entrance led to an end to any chatting. Cinder was the first to speak.

“Emerald I do believe...”

“She’s ready.”

Considering the significance Cinder opted not to chastise Emerald for cutting her off instead all eyes turned to Salem who only stood in response turning towards Cinder.

“If what your pawn says is true then this discussion is over with the continuation of our original plans. Come child both you and your valuable helper deserve to witness this victory.”

Salem made her way past Emerald who waited for Cinder who gave her a proud nod and signalled for her to follow behind. Making their way through the compound Emerald was the first to break the silence.

“I’m not entirely sure how but using Summer was the key her appearance caused Ruby to drop all her walls.”

Salem gave out a hearty laugh that worried both Emerald and Cinder.

“Child ones’ family can be a great strength and crippling weakness.”

At this they had reached their destination in Ruby’s room. Cinder and Emerald turned to Salem expecting her to take the lead. Guessing correct Salem opened the door making her way into the room with Cinder in tow as Emerald opted instead for the shadows.

“I’ve been told you have had a change of heart young child.”

Salem’s presence along with the regal way in which she spoke caused Ruby to shiver and attempt to hide herself in the chair shrinking into herself. Ruby’s head hung low and she stared at the floor, tears in her eyes as her voice threatened to break.

“I… no what I should do But I just can’t.”

Salem took a step forward being too close for comfort for even Cinder, reaching over she picked up the collar resting it between her hands finally placing it in her left hand she used her right grasp Ruby’s forehead lifting her head up, forcing her to look into Salem’s eyes.

“what is most important is you made the decision. While you may not be able to given your state someone else can carry it out for you.”

With that Cinder stepped forward turning of the IV drip and standing next to Salem how handed her the collar in response Cinder walked around and behind Ruby waiting for Salem to give her permission. Salem looked straight in through Ruby’s eyes and what felt like her soul asking her the question she dreaded most.

“are you reading child?”

Ruby maintaining eye contact nodded and after a few moments of silence after she was sure her voice would hold.

“y-ye-yes.”

With Ruby’s confirmation Salem nodded at Cinder who could only smirk as she wrapped the collar victoriously around Ruby’s neck locking it in place and handing the key to Salem. Slowly the rose patterns along the collar started to shimmer and glow eliciting a near continuous scream from Ruby which was only stopped by the emptying of her lungs. With her lungs depleted ruby collapsed in her chair as Cinder only looked at Salem in triumph while Emerald stepped forward.

“What now?

Salem turned to Emerald.

“now we can rebuild her mind into whatever we wish, tear down those silly foundations of hope and replace them with our own. A most loyal servant.”

 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

…Somewhere in Remnant.

A variety of Grimm spawn themselves endlessly from pools of a black tar-like substance, in a window above Emerald and Mercury watch in either fear or disgust witnessing first-hand the birthing of Grimm, however they prefer to watch over such rather than the tense argument behind them. Arthur and Tyrian seemingly belittling Cinder for her actions as Beacon while Hazel merely sits in his chair eyes closed seemingly asleep deciding to ignore the petty argument.

“Oh please Cinder if you were half as good as you claim then you would’ve succeeded in obtaining the relic, now we have to waste precious time scouring ruins while hunters constantly interrupt us.”

“Yea and can you even prove you killed Ozpin, it’s not like you brought proof and that’s why I always take a trophy, leaves no doubt about who I’ve killed.”

Just as Cinder is about to retort Salem enters causing all discussions to abruptly end and all eyes turn to follow her as she makes her way to sit at the throne.

“Arthur you should avoid diminishing the value of Cinder’s efforts without which we undoubtedly wouldn’t be where we are now. You risk underestimating Ozpin’s actions before his fall there is no doubt in my mind that he made the relic at Beacon harder to acquire to stroke that narcissism of his.”

Arthur folds his arms in response flicking his eyes between Salem and Cinder.

“she has not only defeated Ozpin but taken the mantle of the Fall Maiden and given us an invaluable gift with the silver eyed girl, however due to the damage she did to you, you will remain here for more treatment. Watts you will got to Mistral and meet with our informant, Hazel will join Adam to meet Sienna Khan while you Tyrian get to continue your hunt for the Spring Maiden.”

“oh-oh according to Watt’s intel one Qrow Branwen is travelling through anima one can only presume he’s heading to Mistral, surely it would please you greatly for me to remove one of Ozpin’s precious pawns of the board than bore around searching for some Maiden.”

“As much as I would hate to agree with the maniac Branwen seems to be not far behind those twerps from Beacon, perhaps it would be prudent to remove uncontrollable forces?”

Salem turned from the hopeful expression of Tyrian to the stoic Hazel pondering the validity of these arguments.

“Further limiting the risks of exposing our plans at Mistral should be paramount. Very well Tyrian you get one chance at Qrow before he reaches the city limits do with it what you will whereas for the students I have something much more direct planned. Tyrian on your way out summon dear Ruby for me.”

Tyrian jumped in his seat overflowing with glee at his chance to kill Qrow.

… A farm in Anima.

A young boy with dark hair awakens from his restless sleep with a scream.

“Ahh, what the hell.”

Sitting up in a cold sweat he tries in vain to remember his dreams and turns to look out of the window at the rising sun.

…Somewhere in Anima.

“Why JNNR(Junior)? Your argument that it has 3 members of JNPR is quite weak Nora besides JNNR isn’t a colour. NJNR (Ninja) is much more applicable Neo is older and more experienced than all of us, we’re helping her find Ruby and Ninjas act in the shadows so use dark colours.”

“Your missing the point Ren Jaune is our leader his name should be at the start.”

Just as Jaune is about to add his opinion Neo bursts through the trees using her Umbrella in one hand to swing along branches while using her other hand to fire Roman’s cane back at the monster chasing her.

“shelve this for now, Ren Nora back up Neo while we figure out how to beat this thing.”

As Ren sprints across flanking the Grimm peppering it with rounds Nora jumps using the momentum from her hammer to fly up towards its face and attempts to slam its face. As all three attack Jaune takes the time to look over Grimm

_I though it was a Geist Grimm not some moving mountain_ _great time to be without a weapon Jaune_ As Jaune surveys the Grimm he notices the red lines emanating from its core throughout its body while nobody’s attacks seem to be even affecting the hulk in front of them.

Just as Jaune is about to shout some commands Nora jumps from a tree spinning towards its right arm and shatters it into rocks. In response, the Grimm picks up a tree seemingly absorbing it as a new arm.

“ha you know what trees hate you big dummy? FIRE, Neo quickly.”

Neo spins and throws a dust capsule at Nora who catches it loads it into her grenade launcher firing a single shot towards the beast setting its arm on fire. Nora jumps in triumph ignorant of how the beast ignores the flames opting to swipe at Ren behind him, Ren jumps back and shouts towards Nora.

“You know it can’t feel that right.”

“how was I supposed to know he wouldn’t care about being on fire.”

“guys you have to hit it harder and avoid its limbs it isn’t protecting them, aim for its face.”

Nora turns towards Jaune annoyed at his apparent plan.

“Just hit it harder really that’s your grand strategy easier said than done.”

“Neo!”

Jaune points towards the treeline and then Nora.

“Catapult.”

Earning a grin for Neo she salutes and disappears.

“Ren distract it while we set up, Nora be ready for Neo to catch you then hit its face as hard as you can.”

_Really, just hit it harder I could’ve thought of that_ Nora turned towards the treeline and jumped out of sight. Neo took the hook from the cane and placed it against a branch running along the trees she waited until she was just behind Nora to taut the rope being pulled backwards she swung back and then forwards firing back to gain momentum. Nora braced as Neo slammed into at full speed flinging her into the air towards the Grimm.

“Ren now.”

Ren jumped up along the Grimm leaping from atop its face towards Nora he flipped over her kicking of her back transferring his momentum as Nora yelled in excitement slamming her hammer with all the force she could muster causing shockwaves to erupt from the ground. The Grimm’s arms and legs shattered simultaneously as its head and core fell to the ground.

Nora jumped into the air in triumph as Ren and Jaune gathered their things, to the side Neo was patting her self down removing any remaining twigs or grass from her clothes and gave an annoyed look towards Jaune.

“what. It worked didn’t it.”

 Just as Jaune finished the Geist Grimm erupted from the remains screaming as it flew away, Neo just glanced at Jaune with an eyebrow raised.

“Fine but can you please just deal with it.”

Neo smirked as she turned and raised the cane firing a single shot at the Grimm blasting and dissipating it.

“Right, strike another victory for team JNNR.”

Jaune struck his best triumphant pose before deflating.

“you know what I think Ren is onto something, saying it out loud it just sounds dumb.”

As the Trio continued to argue Neo just shook her head in disbelief _We just beat a Geist Grimm and they’re still on about silly names_. Breathing a sigh of relief, she re-joined them as they made their way back to the village.

“I can’t thank you again that Geist had been plaguing our village for weeks, are you sure there is no other way we can repay you?”

Just as Neo raises her hand Jaune intercedes

“No that won’t be necessary our previous arrangement is more than enough thanks.

Turning to Neo everyone laughed as she sulked about being denied more Lien.

…Inside the blacksmiths shop.

As Jaune retrieved his new armour Neo saw the additions and turned sombre becoming precariously overcome with guilt at her role in the fall of Beacon noticing her turn Nora put an arm around Neo in a supportive gesture.

“Hey, we’ve all lost people we care about but what matters now is that we make them proud.”

Neo gave her a grateful smirk as they bid farewell to the blacksmith. Making their way to the outskirts of the village Neo held out the map as the rest consulted it.

“Onto Shion village then, hopefully we can catch a ride to Mistral.”

Nora adds to Jaune’s statement

“yea and fully restocked on dust thanks to the Schnee Dust Company and plenty days’ worth of food.”

… Back in Salem’s Domain.

Tyrian skipped happily towards Ruby’s room not caring to knock he threw the door open. Ruby was on the end of the bed just finishing buckling her boots.

“Ah good your up, her highness requires your presence, don’t keep her waiting too long.”

Ruby simply nodded at went over to her desk to retrieve Crescent Rose. Looking over herself in the mirror adjacent checking everything was in place. She sports a white blouse and a black skirt, she double checks the lacing of her corset and the buckling holding crescent Rose, her stockings decorated with a long rose had tears from wear matched by her cape, her dulled eyes rest upon the collar around her neck that acted as a constant reminder of her new life. Shaking it off she shoved past Tyrian who only giggled in response and went on his way for his showdown with Qrow.

Ruby entered the throne room taking note of who was present, Cinder next to Salem as they conversed about her treatment while Emerald and Mercury stayed far behind her, hazel sat opposite Cinder being the only one to acknowledge Ruby’s presence at first.

“You called for me.”

Ruby said in neutral tone.

Salem turned her attention from Cinder as both looked towards Ruby.

“Hazel here was just telling me how effective you were in helping him and Tyrian take down those pesky huntsman and huntress. Though to truly prove your usefulness we need to see how you are solo without anyone watching over you, this is a big step in trust ruby you would be smart not to squander it.”

Ruby nodded in agreement and asked for her assignment.

“what is it you need from me.”

“always to the point, I much prefer this new you we’ve made. There are four pesky upstart pawns looking to punch above their weight and have the delusional they can derail our plans. Word has it they are about to reach Shion village which unbeknownst to them has been wiped out by bandits and Grimm. They will surely have to pass through the remains of Kuroyuri. Now I wouldn’t expect you to fight four hunters at once, instead your going to wake the Nuckelavee from it’s slumber and lure it towards the village you’ll then return, is that clear?”

Ruby nodded but raised her hand slightly, Salem beckoned her to respond.

“Crystal, one question, surely a single Grimm won’t beat 4 hunters?”

Salem gave a smile that unsettled everyone except Ruby, both Emerald and Mercury took a cautious step back while Cinder looked questioningly at Ruby and Hazel smiled.

“I don’t need him to beat them, even if somehow they do overcome him I have no doubt their conditions will be too severe for them to continue on to Mistral.”

Ruby bowed and took her leave as Salem turned between Cinder and Hazel.

“You know I rather like what we’ve done to that girl, loyal yet independent enough that she asks all the right questions.”

Cinder was the first to respond.

“you didn’t tell her who the four were?”

Salem leaned back into her throne.

“And give our new addition unwarranted stress, just because this new Ruby was willing to kill some huntress and huntsman let’s not add to the unrest within her by making her knowingly injure her friends, we have to work towards that. If in the unlikely scenario the real Ruby breaks free it would be better if she was surrounded by us than her compatriots, for fear that she lose her usefulness.”


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

Neo was stood in an endless garden devoid of life, a mist prevented her from seeing more than an arm’s length around her. The wind whistled around her causing her to shake grasping at herself failing in her attempts to stay warm, looking around she had rarely felt as alone as she does now until suddenly a voice spoke from behind her causing her to whip around in surprise.

“You know we gotta stop meeting like this, forests aren’t my forte.”

Neo’s eyes widened as she stared straight into the eyes of Roman. Roman responded to Neo’s expression by walking circles around her with a smile until he pulled a chair from the mist causing the whole scene to change to Juniors club empty with no music playing he sat at a sudden table which had a miniature griffon Grimm in a small cage in the centre while two drinks sat on the rim. Roman offered one to Neo.

“This is much better. Warm, inside with a bouncer outside stopping any twerps from annoying us.”

Neo declined the drink and stared down at Roman suspicious of his intentions while looking wearingly at the increasingly agitated griffon.

“Your giving me that same look you gave me the first time Cinder approached us. Don’t worry about him he’s my trophy, just a little reminder.”

Roman rubbed his thumb and finger together in front of the cage as though he was attracting a cat even mimicking cat noises. The griffon tried to leap at Roman hitting the bars of the cage yet still causing Roman to jerk his hand away in fear.

“you know no matter how small they are Grimm still terrify me. I can see this whole thing isn’t making sense to you so let me make it clearer.”

As Roman stood necking his drink in the process he turned back to Neo spread his arms out in a cross causing the scene to change again except now Neo readied her umbrella as Grimm appeared in the sky while the floor changed into the hull of an Atlas airship. Roman turned to Neo getting visibly angry.

“you know I’ve never been one to hold a grudge but I watch red throw you off the side of a ship into a swarm of Grimm and you just up and join them look at you being a wannabee huntress but you never stopped to look did you, the one time you left me I died and that’s on you, not me.”

Roman walked as he spoke until he was face to face with Neo poking her should for emphasis.

“what’s to stop you from dying when they leave you? you honestly think they’re gonna want you around? A common criminal who helped destroy their school caused their friends to die.”

Neo looked down in shame processing Roman’s words. Just as she had decided on a response a griffon landed down behind Roman who sighed rolling his eyes he turned towards the griffon.

“Looks like our time is up ice cream.”

Suddenly Roman was engulfed by the Griffon as the airship disappeared causing Neo to freefall.

She awoke with a start leaping out of her sleeping bag. Relaxing as she realizes it was all a dream resting her head in her hands, scanning the area for comfort she sees the sleeping forms of Nora, Ren and Jaune all unaware of her conflict.

… inside the remains of Shion village.

Team NJNR ran towards what seemed to be the sole survivor of the village, a huntsman with a visible bullet wound to his chest. Ren knelt to apply pressure as Jaune asked him what happened.

“who killed all these people?”

“bandits. A whole tribe and with all the panic gr…”

Failing to finish his words as he coughed blood Ren turned to his team to confirm their fears

“Grimm.”

Suddenly the huntsman grabbed Ren’s arm for support.

“Not just Grimm, there was this gir...”

Again, his words failed him as he continued to cough blood while more continued to seep from his wound. Everyone was aware he wouldn’t make it, but none spoke up fearing saying it out loud would doom the man suddenly he stopped breathing as his body slumped. They all stood around the dead huntsman, visibly upset at another loss. Nora was the first to speak

“Should we bury him?

Ren cut between Jaune and Nora visibly distraught

“we should go. It’s not safe here.”

“Ren?”

Nora turned running after Ren as Jaune fell to his knees.

“I’m tired of losing everything.”

Neo rested her arm on his shoulder for comfort, in response he turned seeing Neo’s scroll in her free hand typing.

_“It will be okay.”_

Jaune smiled regaining his composure he stood and turned towards Ren and Nora who were distracted by a marking on the ground. Speaking loudly to get their attention.

“Come on if we’re going to make camp we should try to make it as far from here as we can.”

Everyone nodded leaving what left of Shion village behind them trying to determine a good place to make camp.

…

Neo was surrounded by darkness. A fireball shot towards her forcing her to duck, scanning the void she struggled to find her assailant. Malice filled laughter caused her to whip her head backwards as the body of Roman was thrown at her pinning her to the ground. Slowly more were added on top, Ren’s, Nora’s, Ruby’s, Jaune’s, as the bodies kept pilling crusher her lungs preventing her from breathing, looking everywhere she could she still couldn’t see anyone attempting in vain to free herself from the pile. She heard the clicking of heels behind her looking up until the source of the noise was in her field of view, Cinder with a smug grin looked down at Neo crouching until she was face to face with Neo.

“You know if you make your bed you really should sleep in it.”

At that Cinder stood turning and walking away as a single fireball set the pile on fire

Neo was again suddenly dragged out of her sleep sitting up in her bag she closed her eyes pinching the bridge of her nose is annoyance of her constant nightmares. Looking up she noticed Jaune’s bed was empty, growing increasingly concerned she heard a noise in the distance, focusing on it she decided it sounded as though a woman was talking. Following the noise quietly to prevent waking the others she was shocked to see Jaune stood with his back to her sword and shield drawn following the instructions of a woman on his scroll who was giving him pointers to improve his stance. Deciding to avoid interrupting she took a step back thankful for her skill in stealth watching as Jaune improved his stance and fighting style, towards the end the girl on the scroll laughed.

“now assuming you aren’t cheating we can take a break.”

Jaune turned towards the Scroll clearly emotional as the woman continued to speak.

“I know this can be frustrating and it can feel like so much effort to progress such a small amount but I want you to know that I am proud of you I’ve never met someone so determined to better themselves you’ve grown so much since we started training and I know this is just the beginning.”

The woman paused looking to the side her green eyes struggling to meet the lens of the camera while the words of encouragement reminded Neo of her relationship with Roman and how he helped her to survive.

“Jaune… I-I-I want you to know that I’m just happy to be a part of your life I’ll always be here for you Jaune.”

Suddenly the scroll froze rewinding back to the beginning of what dawned suddenly on Neo must have been a recording. Deciding to give Jaune his time alone Neo snuck back to camp seeking shelter in the warmth of her bed hopeful her nightmares were at an end.

… Some time earlier outside a cave.

Ruby stood annoyed at the distant sound of gun fire as bandits attacked a nearby village. She made her way slowly into the cave careful not to make any noise as the sleep form of the Nuckelavee came into view. Ruby sighed with a mixture of annoyance and disinterest as she extended Crescent Rose fully looking down at the scythes increasing signs of wear and tear she remarked internally that she would have to give it some maintenance eventually. Slowly she turned towards the sleeping Grimm planting her scythe into the ground she fired a single round into its body, a loud gun shot echoed throughout the cave into the distance.

The beast either failed to notice the bullet and its accompanying sound or simply didn’t care. Ruby leant her head back taking a deep breath retrieving a fire dust crystal from her pouch she placed it onto of the horse section of the Grimm, returning to Crescent Rose she fired a single shot covering the Nuckelavee in flames. The monster jumped at with a start its Grimm rider swung its hands with fright and abandon forcing Ruby to jump back towards the cave entrance. Suddenly the Grimm ran straight towards Ruby who merely jumped with the help of her scythe over the beast which ignored her and ran towards the flaming village.

Ruby growled in frustration as it ran towards the remains of Shion village giving chase a short distance behind the creature. As they reached the village the Grimm stamped about leaving its tracks in its wake searching for its prey seemingly uninterested in Ruby. A Huntsman jumped out from cover and shouted at Ruby who stood on top a building.

“little girl you need to hide before that Grimm sees you.”

His attempts at assistance were cut short as a shot rang out, Ruby silenced the man with a single bullet to the chest forcing him to slump against the remains of a wall for support. His eyes wide in surprise at her betrayal. Ruby simply turned towards the Nuckelavee and shot it once in the riders head causing it to turn and shriek angrily at her. Ruby shouted in response.

“YOU GONNA DO WHAT YOUR QUEEN WANTS NOW OR WHAT?”

The monster turned walking as calmly as a Grimm could out of the village and towards Kuroyuri. Ruby jumped along the trees a short distance behind the Grimm before taking a short rest and pulling out her scroll she dialled a number.

“Yes child.”

Salem’s voice on Cinder’s scroll made it easy for Ruby to discern that Cinder must have been continuing her treatment with Salem.

“I woke the Nuckelavee per your orders and it got distracted by the remains of a village attacked by bandits but I out it back on track.”

“Excellent work now keep a distance from it and make sure it suffers no more distractions until it reaches Kuroyuri once it does I want you to return immediately.”

“Understood.”

Salem ended the call as ruby took to resting in her current tree deciding she would catch up on some sleep as the Nuckelavee slowly lumbered along the forest.

… Salem’s domain.

Salem pressed the end button on Cinder’s scroll turning towards her.

“I must say that acquiring that child was certainly one of your better decisions.”

Cinder’s response was cut off as a pain shot up her left arm causing her breathing to become ragged as she struggled to control what plagued her.

“you feel it? Don’t fight it girl. It can sense your trepidation, you must make it dread you.”

The two were interrupted as a Seer Grimm enters the throne room clearly unsettling both Emerald and Mercury who took it as a sign to leave. As the Seer approaches Salem, she seemingly consults with it, the jellyfish-like Grimm clicking in response. Salem turns to Cinder.

“are you sure you killed Ozpin?”

Cinder slammed her hand down on the table in a fit of rage.

“Yes. With my own two hands I watched his life force leave his pitiful body.”

Salem smirked and turned towards the Seer.

“reinforce our numbers at Beacon. The Relic IS there.”

As the Seer took its leave Salem lent her head against her hand.

“it’s a shame Miss Rose isn’t aware of the relics, her knowledge of Beacon could’ve come in handy if Ozpin had entrusted her instead of that Nikos girl with the Maidan powers.”


	6. Chapter 6

… A farm somewhere on Anima.

Oscar had just finished his work placing his tools back into the barn and for some reason the mirror atop the sink caught his attention. Nervously he steps forward squinting his eyes as he focuses on his own reflection, cautiously he spoke.

“Hello?”

After a pause he chuckled slightly unsure as to why he was drawn to the mirror, just as he is about to turn around a voice interrupted his thoughts causing him to recoil in surprise falling into a pile of hay.

“Hello I’m Professor Ozpin.”

Oscar quickly recovered and checked he hadn’t broken any of the tools knowing his aunt wouldn’t let him hear the end of it if he damaged them, curiously however whenever he looked back at the mirror he didn’t hear the source of the voice again, becoming increasingly certain he was losing his own mind.

… Atop a tree near Kuroyuri.

Ruby rested Crescent Rose on her lap in its rifle form ready for any potential intruders that threatened her peace and quiet. Ruby kept a vigilant watch around her wary of letting sleep take her as her body’s demand for sleep slowly outweighed her fear of suffering more nightmares. Eventually her head rested against the tree as her body slumped in place, sleep creeping into her eyes as she struggled to keep them open.

“Salutations Ruby.”

Ruby’s eyes opened as she jerked in her bonds. Her hands cuffed to the centre of the table reminiscent of the first time she met Ozpin except with a few additions, the first being the aforementioned handcuffs, second there were now two chairs opposite her the one to her right currently occupied by Penny as the other was left vacant. Ruby failed to meet Penny’s eyes, her mere presence enough to cause her chest to tighten as she was dangerously close to being overcome with sorrow.

“you know you once called me friend. Am I really your friend? Friends don’t let each other die do they? According to all my references they’re supposed to look out and care for one another but instead you let me die.”

The final word struck a chord in Ruby, she turned glaring at Penny as tears slowly dropped from her eyes just as she opened her mouth to respond, to promise Penny she was her friend, to beg her to stop she was instead interrupted by a laugh behind her.

“Of course, she isn’t your friend.”

The voice caused Ruby to freeze in fear. They were never together always separate, such a development forced Ruby to accept her small ounce of luck had finally ran dry. She started to pull against her bonds in a vain attempt to end this nightmare as the owner of the voice walked around and sat in the chair next to Penny.

“Atrocious, I really can’t stand people like you. You cause so much suffering and now when it’s time to face the consequences you try to run like a scared child. LOOK AT US! LOOK AT WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!”

Slamming their hand on the table for emphasis causing Ruby to shut her eyes and shrink up into herself. Ruby shook in fear as she slowly looked up turning her head to avoid Penny’s gaze until she stared into the green eyes of Pyrrha who was quick to continue her assault on Ruby.

“Did you think you were destined to become a huntress? I’m sorry you couldn’t keep your delusional fairy tale alive and now look at you shepherding some Grimm like a farmhand. Hah, you know Ruby Rose throughout the whole time I have known you you’ve consistently surprised me, helping to kill Huntsman and Huntress is one thing but now… this is a new low.”

Ruby balled her hands into fists in anger gritting her teeth she leant forward as far as the bonds would allow her.

“A NEW LOW? I’M DOING WHAT I CAN TO KEEP THOSE I CARE ABOUT SAFE! YOU WERE THE ONE WHO RAN OFF TO FIGHT A BATTLE YOU COULDN’T WIN! YOU’RE THE REASON I’M LIKE THIS NOW!”

Ruby slumped in her chair surprised at how tired that outburst had made her. Pyrrha chuckled as she rubbed her eyes in feigned annoyance.

“still ever the child Ruby, blaming others for your own mistakes. There’s no one left to help you now it’s time to for you to realize that. It’s time for you to pay.”

Finishing her sentence, she signalled to Penny who nodded in response as Ruby looked at the silent conversation in fear. In unison both reached for Ruby’s trapped hands as she tried her hardest to free herself. The second both hands touched hers she screamed. Her mind becoming filled with images of their deaths seemingly on loop. Both voice shouted from within her own head, talking over each other.

“YOURTHEREASONWEDIEDALLYOURFAULTSOMEFRIENDYOURAREYOURUINEDMYLIFEYOURFAULTYOURFAULTYOURFAULT!”

Suddenly Ruby was ripped from her nightmare by a scream, she jumped up with Crescent Rose in hand using the scope to survey the area eyes noticeably blurred by tears. She sighed as she saw the Nuckelavee consuming an unfortunate bandit or villager, she didn’t really care, opting to end their suffering she homed in on their head taking a single shot that echoed throughout the forest. The Grimm screeched angrily as its toy was broken. Slumping back down onto the tree she laughed at herself, never before had she been grateful to a Grimm, but she would happily give that Grimm countless victims as gratitude for pulling her from that torture.

…a couple miles from Higanbana.

Neo was holding the map in front of the team as they followed the path ahead of them. Nora placed her head between Neo and the map.

“Hey Neo, how much farther until the next stop?”

Freeing her right hand of the map she raised 3 fingers then only 2 then back to 3 until she shook her hand gesturing maybe. Nora pumped a hand into the air.

“Come on guys I know we can make it to the next village before sunset if we pick up the pace.”

Jaune pessimistically replied.

“Assuming it’s still there.”

Nora turned back to Neo.

“Neo which town is it?”

She pointed at the village on the map for Nora to read.

“Higanbana? Sweet. Hey, Ren isn’t that supposed to be big?”

Smiling to himself Ren raised a finger to answer.

“It’s a well-protected village with a pretty popular inn”

“you know what that means right guys? No camping in the rain!”

Nora tilted her head to the side gesturing a triangle above her head with her hands excited at the prospect of a warm bed and solid walls. Jaune pondered this thinking over the journey.

“you know we have had our ups and downs, but things could be a lot worse, to be honest I thought we would see a lot more Grimm.”

Ren agreed with him as Nora wrapped her arm around Neo and Ren pointing her hands forward.

“I guess our luck is finally turning around. TO HIGANBANA!”

Off to the cliff behind them a lurking Beowulf was suddenly cut down mid pounce, Qrow drew his weapon out resting it on his shoulder. Surrounded by dissipating remains of Grimm he tutted in annoyance.

“Luck, yea right.”

A gunshot rang out causing some birds to flee in fear. _That sounds like… that’s impossible._ Suddenly his attention was caught by a flying Raven ending his train of though.

…Higanbana.

Team NJNR ran quickly into the inn seeking shelter from the sudden onslaught of rain, Neo’s umbrella struggling to cover all 4 members, they all shook off the rain. Unbeknownst to them in the tavern opposite them Qrow was watching, his train of thought broken by a drink being placed on the table. He looked up questioningly at the waitress.

“I didn’t order that.”

The waitress responded with a nice smile. Pointing with her free hand upstairs.

“From the woman upstairs. Red eye. Said you wouldn’t mind bottom shelf.”

Qrow turned to look behind him before returning to the drink.

“Thanks.”

Suddenly the waitress let into Qrow talking quietly she winked.

“But I went ahead and gave you top. Lucky you.”

Qrow smiled as she walked away before his gaze returned to the Inn that housed team NJNR eliciting a small laugh.

“Yea, lucky me.”

Picking up his drink Qrow made his way upstairs conflicted. He didn’t know whether to be grateful for the opportunity to try and get information from Raven or annoyed that he would have to speak to his sister. As he made it to the top of the stairs his eyes rested on the sole occupant as Raven stared back at him.

“Hello brother.”

“Raven.”

Qrow shrugged of her greeting as he sat down at her table.

“So, what does the leader of the Branwen tribe want?”

Raven raised her arms in feigned surrender an unconvincing expression of hurt on her face that turned to a smile.

“A girl can’t just catch up with family?”

“she can but you’re not, let get on with it. Unless you plan on keeping these coming.”

Pausing for a drink he gestured to the rapidly decreasing glass of alcohol before emptying its content and placing it on the table. Raven became annoyed at her brothers drinking opting instead to return to business.

“does she have it?”

Qrow toyed with the glass frustrated at Raven’s aversion to family.

“Did you know Yang lost her arm? Or that Ruby is missing?”

“That’s not- “

“Rhetorical question, I know you know. Yet it’s just obnoxious you bring up family and not even ask about your own daughter pretending she doesn’t exist or how your former leaders daughter has vanished.”

“I saved her.”

“Once. Because that is your rule, right? Real mother of the year material.”

Raven grabbed Qrow’s arm annoyed at her brother’s jabs.

“I told you Beacon would fall, and it did. I told you Ozpin would fail, and he has. NOW you tell me, does Salem have it?”

“I thought you didn’t care about all that?”

“I just want to know what WE are up against.”

“And which WE are you referring to?”

Raven growled in annoyance releasing Qrow’s arm and slumping back into her chair.

“You should come back Raven, the only way we better her is by working together. All of us. Did you ever stop to think this could have been avoided if you hadn’t left?”

Raven became increasingly agitated with her brother’s accusations, raising her voice in anger keeping herself from shouting but emphasising her point.

“YOU’RE the one who left. The tribe raised us, yet you turned your back on them.”

“killers and thieves, you mean, I saw what you did to Shion village.”

Raven leant forwards.

“They are your family.”

“You have a very skewed perception of that word.”

Refusing to allow Qrow to continue his beratement Raven stood

“As leader I do what is necessary to ensure our peoples survival.”

“I saw, the people of Shion saw to.”

“The weak die, the strong live. Those are the rules.”

“Judging by the damage you certainly have someone strong on your side.”

Raven turned in shame avoiding Qrow’s eyes

“We couldn’t have known the Grimm would settle in as quickly as they did, besides the Nuckelavee is supposed to be hibernating off in its cave somewhere.”

“I’m not talking about the Grimm, or you either.

Reaching for Raven’s helmet to prevent her from leaving.

“I may not know where the relic is, but I don’t know where the spring maiden is either.”

Raven yanked the helmet from Qrow’s grasp

“And why would I tell you that?”

“Because without her we’re all going to die.”

Raven smirked

“And which WE are you referring to.”

Using her semblance Raven left Qrow as he nursed his empty glance turning to the shocked expression of the waitress. He held the glance up to her.

“Make this one a double.”

… Sometime later.

As the waitress was scrubbing the floor she failed to look up as the bell signalled a new customer until he had already made his way over to her treading fresh dirt across the recently cleaned floor. Looking up she saw him licking his lips with his eyes wide in excitement.

“Excuse me, I was hoping you could help me find someone?”

The customer suddenly burst into laughter overjoyed by her look of fear he had created.


	7. Chapter 7

…Near Oniyuri.

Nora stretched her arms basking in the morning Sun.

“Another day another adventure.”

As Jaune continued to consult the map following behind Nora his train of thought was interrupted as Neo placed her scroll in front of him

“ _What’s on the agenda for today?”_

Jaune turned his attention towards Neo, eyebrow raised. His response was one of boredom mixed with a bit of hope as their encounters with the Grimm had been decreasing.

“Walking.”

Neo responded again on her scroll. The slow down in pace enabled Ren to come along side Jaune who also read the response.

“ _Haven seems a lot further than I thought.”_

Ren allowed Jaune to focus on the map, preventing them from getting lost and answered Neo.

“Yea the journey has certainly been longer than planned but I don’t think any of us could’ve turned down helping people especially that village that suffered from the Geist.”

Nora turned around walking backwards her hands on her head.

“And if our luck holds then we can make up for lost time by keeping our current pace.”

Before anyone could respond she spun back around seemingly determined to emphasise her point and skipped a few more feet ahead. As the group fell back into their formation Nora jumped atop a poll placing her hands above her eyes as makeshift binoculars.

“Hey guys some people might need our help.”

The other 3 stopped following Nora’s line of sight until they rested upon what looked like yet another damaged village. Jaune double checked the map confused at the village in front of them.

“That’s strange it’s not on the map, we shouldn’t reach another village for a few days.”

Forgetting about the map Jaune ran ahead forcing the rest to catch up.

“We should search for survivors.”

Making their way into Oniyuri they all paused assessing their surroundings for either Grimm or people. Ren was the first to notice that the buildings instead of being damaged were seemingly half built, left to rot and decay.

“It almost seems like the town was abandoned.”

Nora made her way towards Ren becoming distracted at a sign, swiping away the dust and debris she read it aloud as the rest gathered behind her.

“Oniyuri? Never heard of it.”

Jaune put his hand behind his head running it through his hair.

“I haven’t heard it either.”

“I have.”

Everyone turned to Ren surprised at his admission.

“think of it as Anima’s Mountain Glenn had it never been completed. Sometime ago the richest members of Mistral didn’t agree with how the kingdom was being run. Becoming increasingly frustrated with the council they decided to pool their resources and strike off building their own city.”

Neo suddenly became distracted as the idea of so many rich people in a dense area created so many lost opportunities in her head for her and Roman to profit off. Realising her distraction, she nudged Jaune as she typed on her scroll.

“Neo asks what happened?”

Ren turned brushing off a piece of debris revealing the mark of a Grimm.

“What always happens.”

“Grimm?”

“Not just anyone.”

Ren’s hands balled into fists to contain his anger as Neo tilted her head inquisitively at Jaune who asked for her.

“One?”

As Ren failed to answer an uncomfortable silence surrounded the group, not wanting to attract Grimm Jaune decided that it was best to leave taking a few steps towards the front gate he called back.

“Come on… this place gives me the creeps.”

Neo followed as Nora looked over at Ren saddened by his shift in demeanour, she felt guilty believing she was partially to blame. As they neared the front gate Ren put his hand out causing the rest to stop. He closed his eyes focusing on his senses to decipher the cause, slowly the faint sounds of footsteps became increasingly louder while more worryingly he could just make put the sound of laughter meaning that it most certainly wasn’t a Grimm.

Ren drew his weapons leading to the other 3 to ready theirs. Suddenly Tyrian burst from over a wall landing in front of team NJNR. As Tyrian unholstered his weapons Jaune and Ren tried to diffuse the situation.

“We’re not looking for a fight.

“Who are you?”

Tyrian put away his weapons pointing at Ren and Nora.

“Who I am doesn’t matter to you. or even-.”

He became distracted looking at Neo and Jaune.

“Although you two do interest me. Tell me girl have we met before?”

Neo shook her head weary of the man’s intentions and taking a step behind Jaune.

Tyrian’s demeanour suddenly shifted as he sighed, placing his hand behind his head in annoyance he closed his eyes.

“the one who does matter to me isn’t here, but I could have sworn I was right behind him. Tell me children have any of you seen a huntsman around here? Goes by the name of Qrow.”

Everybody tensed up as Jaune readied his shield.

“What do you want with Ruby’s uncle?”

Tyrian burst out into laughter causing the group to look between each other unsure of how to react.

“That’s just sublime, none of you have the slighted clue, do you? oh how much fun I’m going to have telling Ruby about this.”

“What do you mean tell Ruby? Do you know where she is?”

Tyrian again burst out laughing

“if you want me to tell you, you’re going to have to make me!”

Jaune frustrated with the mans taunting charged at him shield and sword ready, however before reaching him Tyrian seemingly disappeared and reappeared behind Jaune who was caught off guard by the mans remarkable speed. Ren was the first to react strafing Jaune’s shield and Tyrian with bullets which were easily blocked by his aura, Neo attempted strike him from behind, but a quick round house kick forced her to use her semblance leaping backwards as the illusion was shattered by his foot. Kicking Jaune to the side the man ran at Nora as he remarked.

“Guess I could do with a warm up.”

Unexpectedly Nora was shot from behind Tyrian who traced the lightning projectile to a cane in Neo’s hand, confused he put his hand to his head turning to Neo in laughter, who only stared at him with a knowing smirk.

“Somebody needs to work on their aim.”

Distracted Tyrian failed to notice Nora standing up as electricity flickered throughout her body. Using the donated energy Nora energised her semblance darting behind the man and launching him with the help of her hammer into a nearby building. As all 4 gathered round the whole in the building a coat flew out covering Nora, the distraction worked as the other 3 failed to notice Tyrian leaping atop Jaune and landing on the roof. Looking down he smiled with wide eyes and a laugh.

“Shocking!”

Jaune was the first to answer.

“If you know anything about Ruby tell us now.”

Tyrian laughed at the weak threat.

“That Rose has thorns that’s for sure even Cinder would be wary of what she has created.”

Overcome with emotion Jaune shouted.

“CINDER! Is she behind all of this?”

Tyrian smiled at the ludicrous idea of Cinder being in charge turning to Jaune.

“Only in her wildest dreams.”

Any chance for a response was ended as Tyrian again utilised his speed to seemingly appear in front of Neo she spun her umbrella expanding to deflect his attacks however she was caught of guard by his scorpion tail, its sudden appearance distracted her as he flipped into her launching her away. Ren was quick to warn the others as he approached Tyrian to enable Neo to recover.

“careful he’s a Faunus.”

Ren struggled to match both the Tyrian’s attacks by his weapons and tail becoming dangerously close to being overwhelmed. Jaune left Neo to Nora and ran to Ren’s aid however his attempt was cut short as Tyrian planted his boot firmly on Jaune’s shield launching him back. The shimmer of Ren’s aura signalled to everyone that it was on the brink earning a laugh from Tyrian who quickly spun around sweeping Ren of his feet slamming him onto the ground. Launching his stinger at Ren the sound of steel filled the air followed by a sudden clink as Qrow appeared in front of Ren blocking the attack with his scythe, Qrow looked down at Ren and scoffed.

“kids.”

Team NJNR and Tyrian were surprised at Qrow revealing his presence his appearance forced Tyrian to jump back and re-evaluate the situation as Qrow turned to face him his attention was drawn to Jaune who spoke to him.

“Listen I don’t know why or how you’re here, but he knows where Ruby is.”

“QROW BRANWEN! Finally, I’ve been looking everywhere for you. My grace has decreed it and therefore you shall die.”

The mans strange choice of words caused a raised eyebrow to appear on Qrow as Nora spoke.

“He’s weird.”

Qrow readied his weapon taking a step forward ensuring Ren and the others were out of range of his aura.

“look pal if you know anything about my niece it would end better for everyone if you told me now.”

Tyrian laughed at Qrow’s admission.

“That little thing is your niece how splendid I’ll have another thing to tease her with after you die, for you see my assignment is to kill you and one would do well not to disappoint the queen.”

“Queen?”

Jaune interceded confused about whoever they were referring to. Tyrian was quick to intercede becoming increasingly bored at the lack of fighting.

“Enough talking for now.”

Tyrian pounced at Qrow forcing him to deflect the brunt of his attack with his scythe enabling him to take advantage of his stinger. Qrow however was quick to recover and ducked underneath grabbing onto the back of Tyrian’s head and slamming it onto his knee. Tyrian flipped backwards and growled in annoyance opting this time for a more direct assault he ran swinging his bracers around him slamming them directly into Qrow’s scythe with such a force that it caused a shockwave around the two fighters. Jaune rallied the rest of his team readying them to help. Qrow noticed this shouted at them.

“Stay back and don’t come closer!”

Neo became annoyed at being treated like a child and jumped up onto a nearby building swinging with the assistance of Roman’s cane she readied herself popping out the canes iron sights and waited for an opportunity to help.

It became clear to Qrow that he was slowly gaining an advantage over Tyrian thankful that he didn’t have to fully extend his scythe. Swinging his scythe behind his back he bought it down on top of Tyrian who had to cross his arms to block the attack ensuring the blades met the scythe, at risk of being pinned Tyrian extended little barrels from the centre of the blades that fired rounds in quick bursts towards a nearby pillar causing it to collapse towards Qrow and himself forcing Qrow to retreat and off of him. Taking advantage of the distraction he wrapped his stinger around Qrow’s arm sliding it downwards to his hand forcing him to release Harbinger flinging it into a nearby wall.

Tyrian’s laugh at how easy it seemed to disarm Qrow was cut short as an explosion hit his back causing him to stumble forward into the waiting fist of Qrow, Neo gave a smug look towards Qrow. Unfamiliar with unarmed combat he failed to answer the sudden onslaught of hooks and jabs from Qrow who answered with an uppercut to Tyrian’s chin launching him back and against a wall. As Tyrian recovered from the hands-on treatment while Qrow walked nonchalantly towards Harbinger retrieving his weapon with ease.

Enraged at the prospect of being beaten by a bunch of students and Qrow, Tyrian became enraged launching himself at Qrow who easily replied jumping of the wall which previously held his scythe landing behind Tyrian he launched him onto the crack left by Harbinger causing him to break through the wall but Tyrian was able to wrap his stinger again around Qrow’s arm dragging him as well into the collapsing building. Neo re-joined the other 3 as they all gathered around the hole created staring worryingly into it.

Suddenly from the side of the building Qrow’s scythe flew out embedding itself into the ground followed swiftly by Qrow who landed atop his weapon using it as a landing pad, soon after Tyrian emerged as well as both showed the textbook shimmers of failing auras. Jaune felt confident after Neo’s success at helping that he stepped forward to assist Qrow but was instantly stopped by Ren who placed his arm in front of him, Nora however as she placed her arm on Neo’s shoulder to stop her as well caused her form to shatter breaking the illusion this revealed that Neo had snuck behind Tyrian ready to fire another explosive from Roman’s cane she failed to notice the falling debris behind her forcing Qrow to jump over Tyrian and deflect it.

“What did I say!”

Qrow’s distraction enabled Tyrian to sneak his stinger through Qrow’s defences slicing him along the abdomen drawing a scream of pain from Qrow. Shocked at her actions causing Qrow to get hurt Neo jumped into the air pulling her sword from out of her umbrella she slammed it through Tyrian’s tail and into the ground twisting the blade sideways and cutting off his tail. Overcome by pain Tyrian collapsed screaming.

“YOU BITCH!”

As Tyrian took a step forward to attack Neo he was blocked by the other 3 members of NJNR, realising the hopeless situation in front of him he convinced himself that retreat was the best option hoping that the poison from his stinger would finish the job. As Tyrian turned to flee NJNR’s attempts to give chase were prematurely ended as Qrow collapsed onto one knee placing his hand over the wound. Seeking to end any concerns they may have he spoke.

“Don’t worry he just grazed me I’ll be fine.”

Unconvinced, Jaune decided to focus let it slide.

“How did you even get here? What the hell is going on?

Nora added to the list of questions.

“Who the hell was that guy and why was he after you?”

Neo nodded in support of her team as Qrow attempted to catch his breath in an attempt to answer them.

“…Well that was a mess.”


	8. Chapter 8

… A campfire near Oniyuri

Qrow had just briefed NJNR on the nature of the Maidens. Neo looked over at Jaune as he clenched his hands in frustration.

“So, these Maidens have special powers and can use magic without dust and you decided to force this onto Pyrrha.”

Qrow took another sip from his flask turning towards the visibly angry Jaune.

“We didn’t force anything, she understood the situation and made her choice, you were there, you heard her.”

“A choice? You didn’t give her a choice, everyone knows Pyrrha those around her above herself and you took advantage of that.”

Qrow took a deep breath, choosing his next words carefully.

“Look, it was a delicate situation. Cinder had already somehow stolen half of the previous Fall Maidens powers and I’m sure you can agree it was best to avoid her getting the rest. We were afraid if we didn’t do something the rest would go to her as well.”

Jaune look down to his face then across the fire at Neo who was visibly worried about how he would react. Jaune released his clenched fists spinning around the tree trunk he was sat on and stormed off, his dissatisfaction with Qrow’s answer clear.

Next it was Nora who spoke placing her hands in her lap she coughed to turn everyone’s attention towards her.

“so that guy, Tyrian. Why was he after you?

Qrow smirked resting his head in his hand, his smirk slowly descended into a sombre smile accompanied by a sigh.

“well it could be because Salem see’s me as one of the few Hunters willing to stand against her or…”

Qrow’s facial expression hardened in anger, this time he took a noticeably bigger gulp from his flask.

“If that creep knew something about Ruby then that means Salem must know as well and that prospect terrifies me, I’ve seen some of the things she can do. Not just the things she can create but once she gets inside your head, to say her vision is warped is an understatement.”

Before anyone could properly react, Neo raised her scroll facing it towards Qrow.

“ _So why not travel with us?”_

Qrow rolled his eyes.

 

 

“The whole situation is complicated okay, it’s not like I was using any of you as bait alright. Besides it’s not exactly like you were the most trustworthy addition to this little endeavour.”

Neo crossed her arms, pouting and shrugging her arms in annoyance. Jaune spun around arms spread out as he slowly walked back to where he sat.

“She’s not the one sneaking behind peoples backs. Can’t you just be straight with us for once?”

Qrow took a sip of his flask as he gestured to where Jaune had previously sat.

“Look kid can you sit down you’re stressing me out.”

Jaune crossed his arms as he sat back down clearly annoyed at being called a kid.

Qrow looked around at the members of team NJNR before staring at the camp fire.

“Not many people are super religious these days.”

… Schnee Manor

Weiss was sat on her bed arms in her lap avoiding her fathers hard gaze as he paced back and forth in front of her deliberating how to handle the mess Weiss’ actions created at the charity event.

“Unbelievable! Absolutely unbelievable, do you even care how seriously that stunt or yours cost us?”

Weiss raised her head putting on a fragile defence that was easily swept away, stuttering in her lack of confidence.

“I- I…”

“And don’t think I’m just talking about Lien here! The Schnee reputation, our social standing as pillars of the community, our… everything has been weakened from this.”

Jacques sighed placing his hand behind his head, as Weiss looked across the room towards her mirror. Within the reflection she saw Ruby, stood next to Jacques, looking back at her with sorrow and contempt. The mere sight of Ruby gave Weiss immeasurable confidence, she stood up from the bed attracting the attention of her father.

“Reputation? You dragged me away from Beacon as my own partner and team leader was missing, how would you think people would react when they find out the Schnee family are in the business of abandoning their allies?

Jacques batted her argument away dismissively with his hand turning towards his daughter.

“you really think the people of Atlas care about some missing commoner? Don’t be so daft, clearly Beacon has dulled your intelligence as well as your manners.”

Weiss glared at her father, outraged at his worthless appraisal of her partner. Taking a deep breath, she spoke firmly.

“I want to leave.”

Jacques’ fists clenched in frustration, raising an eyebrow at the disgrace of his daughter trying to avoid her responsibilities.

“I beg your pardon.”

Weiss stood her ground as the reflection of Ruby stood behind Jacques, enabling Weiss to look to her for confidence.

“I want to leave, I do not want to stay in this house anymore and I don’t want to stay in Atlas anymore.”

Jacques became increasingly angry at Weiss attempts at freedom.

“Young lady I don’t give a damn about what you want, you think any of us can just go through life willy-nilly? This isn’t about YOU, this is about the SCHNEE FAMILY NAME and your actions tonight have only reinforced your apparent insistence on dragging it through the mud!”

Weiss’ brow creased in anger as she raised her onto her chest.

“ME! I have done nothing but fight to uphold the honour of MY family name, a name that YOU married into!”

Jacques’ eyes shot open at Weiss outburst, overcome with anger he raised his hand bringing it swiftly across Weiss’ cheek, making it clear she had crossed a line. Weiss placed her hand on her cheek turning back to him, her face red with anger she glared daggers at him as he merely fixed his tie in a nonchalant manner. Taking a deep breath Jacques recollected himself, speaking slowly and deeper for authority.

“This behaviour of yours is incredibly… disappointing. You continue to fail to understand the lengths I have gone to keep this family where it is. Do you honestly think running off like your sister makes the Schnee name stronger cause your wrong? Siding with her only divides us further.”

“SIDES! I’m not siding with anyone, I’m doing what I feel is right and that doesn’t include wasting my time up here when I could be helping to find my leader but no I must suffer these clueless people in Atlas. You think the Schnee family legacy is yours to lead when in fact it’s mine and I’ll do it as a huntress.”

Jacques placed his arms behind his back turning away from Weiss, slowly pacing towards the door he passed through the apparition of Ruby causing her to shimmer, he turned his head to her after her rant had ended.

“No… you won’t. Your mistaken if you think your leaving Atlas, you’re not to leave the Manor grounds unless I specifically allow it. What you are going to do is remain here out of sight and out of trouble until you and I can come to an agreement on your future.”

Weiss’ eyes widened, raising her eyebrows as her restricted life was tightened further.

“WHAT!”

“Your presupposition that you can simply have whatever you want is a clear sign of our failures as parents. So, from now on I’ll be giving you the full attention you require… starting by keeping you where I can see you.

Weiss’ knuckles went white with anger as she clenched her fists at her sides.

“You can’t just keep my trapped here!”

“I can, and the staff here will make sure of it.”

“So now I’m just your prisoner!”

Jacques scoffed at her exaggeration.

“You are my daughter; a child and children are grounded when they misbehave.”

“This will only make things worse, people will ask questions about why the heir to the Schnee Dust Company is suddenly nowhere to be found.”

Standing with his back to the door, Jacques stood with his back straight hands behind him as he played his final trump car.

“Which is why you are no longer the heir to the Schnee Dust Company.”

Weiss’ face went white with shock and anger, the statement so shocking it even caused the illusion of Ruby to widen her eyes, clasping her hand over her mouth in shock.

“EXCUSE ME!”

Jacques continued in his deep voice, this time alongside a thinly veiled attempt at caring for his daughter.

“Clearly the trauma you endured at the fall of Beacon was too much for you, which has led you to generously renounce your claim to the Company passing them onto your brother Whitley… It’s time to wake up Weiss and face reality.”

Jacques turned swiftly reaching for the door, he pushed it open firmly revealing the clear eavesdropping of Whitley, as Jacques walked past his son Whitley turned to Weiss with a smug smile as the door slammed close.

Weiss stormed to the door forcing Ruby to stand aside as she slammed the door open, she shouted to her brother.

“WHITLEY!”

He turned to her maintaining his smug smile as his voice dripped with victory and contempt.

“Yes, sister.”

“Did you know about this?”

“About what?”

“You never liked Winter or me, yet you’ve been nothing but supportive the second I came back.”

Whitley scoffed as he raised his hands in fake surrender.

“If being kind to my big sister is some sort of crime… then I suppose I’m guilty.”

Weiss’ eyes narrowed as she connected the dots in her head unravelling Whitely plot.

“you wanted this to happen!”

Whitley leaned in as his expression turned to malice and anger

“It’s FOOLISH not to do as father asks!”

“I can’t believe you.”

Whitley’s expression instantly returned to normal as he clasped his hands together in front of him.

“Don’t worry Weiss, the Schnee family name is in good hands.”

He turned his back on her walking away in victory.

Suddenly the illusion of Ruby placed her hand in comfort on Weiss’ shoulder, Weiss returned to her room collapsing on her bed as she cried in pain at loosing not just her team but now her purpose. After a few minutes, allowing for her crying to dissipate the Ruby spoke.

“well they’re both assholes!”

Weiss responded with a weak laugh surprised with the unusually crass language, she raised her head and looked out the window.

“you’re not real so I’m not going to acknowledge you.”

Ruby raised an eyebrow in confusion as a small smile spread across her face.

“And you call me a dolt… but seriously you’re not just gonna lie there and take it right?”

Weiss’ eyes narrowed as she saw some cargo ships fly past the window, formulating a plan in her head she stood up and turned to her drawers where the case holding Myrtenaster, retrieving her weapon she pushed all the furniture in her room to the sides ensuring she had enough space to practice, before placing her rapier into the ground to attempt to summon she turned to Ruby with a small smile.

“You know my plans are usually well thought through but after spending enough time around you and Yang I think I can wing it.”

Ruby started laughing as she sat on the discarded bed watching Weiss attempt to summon. As Weiss attempted her first summon since leaving Beacon, she started small cautious not to strain herself, quietly she spoke making a promise to herself.

“This life is mine and I will use it to find you Ruby.”

… Back at the campfire

As morning rose the abandoned fire now defunct in its purpose as the sun rose above the trees. Ren and Jaune were the first to rise, before they could get out of their sleeping bags they heard visceral coughing from Qrow, who was resting against a tree. Neo and Jaune were the firsts to reach him, knelling in front of him. As Qrow removed his hand from his mouth he revealed a purple like substance like the one inside Tyrian’s stinger, as Jaune looked closer the purple fluid had also seeped from the wound onto his bandage, Jaune’s eyes widened as he realised he must’ve been poisoned, he clenched his fists at the prospect of losing yet another life.

Qrow merely laughed as his eyes met Jaune’s.

“Well, this is unfortunate.”


	9. Chapter 9

Schnee Manor….

Ruby rested on the end of Weiss’ bed watching in awe as she elegantly attempted to summon, Ruby never tired of seeing Weiss summon, how she focused on forming glyphs, the way she furrowed her brow, how she held herself in arm outstretched with her rapier anchored into the ground. The hallucination of Ruby squealed in excitement as she witnessed Weiss slowly raise a summoned sword from her glyph on the ground.

“Hello sister.”

Whitley lent smugly against the open door with his arms crossed, his distraction caused Weiss to lose her focus forcing the summoner to dissipate while Ruby jumped up off the bed and unbeknownst to Whitley started to berate him as she crossed her arm mimicking him.

“You don’t get to just interrupt Weiss like that, didn’t anybody teach you how to knock?”

Weiss let out a sigh of annoyance at yet another summons failing, turning to her brother as she stood.

“Leave!”

Whitley rested a hand over his heart in faux pain.

“How hurtful and here I am about to offer you a favour. Father is taking me into town to meet with some business partners and I thought I’d as if you need me to pick you up anything for you since you’re… how should I put it. Grounded.”

Ruby turned her back to Whitley and looked towards Weiss.

“You know, I bet he’s just jealous, seeing you be able to summon is something he can’t have.”

Weiss thought this over for a second and decided to press the issue.

“Are you jealous is that it?”

Whitley tilted his head to the side.

“Whatever do you mean?”

“Are you jealous of my abilities, is that why you hate me?”

Whitley stopped leaning against the door, instead opting for standing in the doorway and elicited a small hum while resting his hand on his chin pondering Weiss’ rather direct question.

“No, not really. Honestly, I find it barbaric, it’s beneath people like me, like father. What could a single huntsman do that an army could not? Why else would we have one, even if it is run by a fool.”

“BARBARIC!”

Ruby’s outburst caused Weiss to squint a little, making it ever more apparent that only she could see her. Weiss clenched her fist around her rapier.

“I said, leave.”

Whitley raised his hands it feigned surrender.

“fine, fine. I have better things to do anyway. Enjoy your… training.”

As Whitley past the threshold of Weiss’ room she summoned a gravity glyph, slamming the door behind him. Releasing a sigh of relief Weiss turned to Ruby.

“why don’t you hate me?”

Ruby spun around clearly caught off guard by the question

“What? Why would I hate you?

Weiss lowered her head in shame as she kept her grip on Myrtenaster resting her other hand over her heart.

“I left you. Abandoned our team.”

Ruby scoffed while rolling her eyes.

“Someone clearly isn’t the brightest fish in the shed.”

Weiss raised an eyebrow at the inaccurate metaphor.

“tool.”

Ruby tilted her head, clearly confused.

“Why would I eat a tool?”

“Why would you put fish in a shed?”

Ruby shook her head taking Weiss’ free hand leading her towards the window.

“never mind that. Look it doesn’t matter that you left. What matters is that you come back. Besides if you honestly think there was anything you would’ve been able to stop your father from taking you then you truly are a dolt.”

Weiss smiled until she realised Ruby wasn’t actually there, causing her to lose her smile. Turning to her she furrowed her brow.

“You’re not really here, why should I listen to you?”

Ruby also turned to her with a big smirk and a raised eyebrow.

“ugh, listen to what you need to hear and ignore the semantics on who is giving it to you.”

Weiss rolled her eyes, turned around and freed her hand from Ruby’s grasp. Standing in the centre of the room she grasped Myrtenaster with both hands pointing upwards.

“No use talking about coming back if I can’t leave this forsaken house.”

Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself for yet another summon. A small white glyph appeared on the ground, slowly growing in diameter. Weiss looked over to Ruby who offered a gentle smile. Suddenly, she planted her rapier into the ground causing the glyph to pulse as the ground started to shake forcing books off the bookshelf and a glass to fall of a table. Ruby’s eye became wider as she witnessed Weiss complete her first summon, covering them only when a blinding light surrounded the room and to protect her eyes from the sudden shattering of the window.

Suddenly Klein burst into the room clearly worried by the shattering of glass and shaking floor.

“Miss Schnee are you…”

He lost his words as he stared at a white shimmering knight that was knelt in front of Weiss. Ruby squealed wrapping her arms around Weiss’ neck. Weiss looked out the window as she put together the makings of a plan.

“Klein, I need a favour.”

Klein’s shocked appearance was replaced with determination as it became clear what Weiss wanted and he slightly promised he would do whatever to help her.

Crossroads near Kuroyuri…

Ren and Jaune carried Qrow on a stretcher as Neo led the way with Nora guarding the rear. Qrow’s increasingly delirious state caused Jaune to worry even more about Ruby’s uncle, who was at this point almost constantly mumbling under his breath and any words that Jaune did catch made it easy to figure out that he wasn’t in a good place.

“Guys I don’t know how much longer he can hold on.”

Jaune hoped that one of his teammates would think of something and while it wasn’t a solution he was answered by Ren’s calm demeanour.

“I wouldn’t over worry the poison seems to be moving spreading slowly and we don’t want to attract too many Grimm that could worsen his condition if we moved him too much.”

“I guess you’re right.”

Nora jogged up next to Jaune also growing increasingly worried as Qrow’s fits of coughing became more frequent.

“How much further? We’ve gotta be close.”

“Without the map there’s no way of knowing but I feel like we’re close to something.”

As Ren finished he stopped next to the already stationary Neo who was stood at a crossroad, one going left and another right. As Neo turned to the group to the group she was clearly conflicted as the left sign directed to Kuroyuri a town undoubtedly closer to them than Mistral, but it was ominously crossed out whereas the right sign pointed towards Mistral, but the distance was so great that it failed to tell them how far, demonstrating that it was at least more than a day’s walk.

“Hey look Mistral, We’re on the right path.”

Nora pointed at the sign in excitement relieved that they weren’t going the wrong way. Her face fell however as she saw the crossed out Kuroyuri sign. Jaune was the next to speak as his view was blocked by Ren.

“Does it say how close?”

Ren lowered his head to cover his emotions and answered sadly.

“no. and worse it looks like the path takes us up through the mountain.”

“There’s no way Qrow can make that climb.”

Neo turned to Jaune pointing at the crossed out Kuroyuri sign which led to both him and Ren lowering Qrow’s stretcher gently onto the ground as he came forward to look at what she was pointing at.

“Well what about this one Neo is pointing at? Do you think we’ll be able to get help there?”

Ren shook his head.

“That village was destroyed years ago.”

“But if it avoids the mountains it’s the best bet we’ve got.”

Ren shook his head dismissively and subconsciously clenched his fists to contain his emotions.

“No that will take too long.”

“The town surely had a doctor, right? If we can find some medicine, then we can afford the time?”

Ren became increasingly agitated, speaking louder and harsher towards Jaune.

“We’re not going to find anything, we just have to press on.”

Jaune extended his hands out in a calming fashion.

“Ren why are you acting…”

“We can split up.”

Nora interceded between Jaune and Ren hoping to avoid any escalation that may attract Grimm or bandits, placing a supportive hand on Ren’s shoulder while being hopeful towards Jaune.

“Ren and I can cut through the mountains while you and Neo take Qrow around through the village.”

Jaune was shocked at the idea of splitting up as it would not only endanger both groups but separating would make him worry ever more so than he was now increasingly the chance of Grimm.

“No, we stick together how else is a team going to keep each other safe.”

Nora’s voice gave way to worry not only at the prospect of having to revisit Kuroyuri but taking any longer could endanger Qrow.

“We don’t have time for safe. If we can make it to Mistral before you, we can bring back help and even if we don’t we’ll at least have a better view of the land and how best to avoid Grimm.”

As the group descended into silence to think over their choices it was made for them as Qrow suffered yet another coughing fit which was by far the most serious yet. Jaune looked back at Neo who was clearly concerned about both Qrow and splitting up but Jaune new this was the best option.

“Okay. Just take care of each other.”

Jaune stepped forward hugged Ren, as Nora stepped forward to rest her hand on Neo’s shoulder she looked towards Jaune.

“We always have.”

As Ren and Nora jogged up the right path towards the hills and Mistral Neo and Jaune carefully picked up Qrow.

… a few hours later outside Kuroyuri.

Neo gave a clear expression confused about why they were so against the idea of cutting through Kuroyuri as she saw what seemed like yet another village that showed the typical signs of being destroyed by Grimm.

Jaune sighed visibly upset by his missing team members actions.

“I have a pretty good idea on why they didn’t want to come here.”

Unwilling to talk about it further he quickly changes the topic.

“I know it can be hard to tell but if you see anything like a pharmacy give me a signal.”

Making their way to the centre of town they gently rested Qrow against a tree, splitting up to check different houses but avoiding going to far from one another. As they searched through the first set of buildings a dejected Jaune came out into the street, visibly distraught.

“Nothing! Come on we should get back to Qrow.”

As they made their way back to towards Qrow a sudden howl caused both to tense up as Jaune spun around grasping at the hilt of his sword. Neo offered a comforting hand on his shoulder as the howling was somewhat in the distance, too close for comfort but not in their immediate area.

Jaune looked towards Neo thankful that he wasn’t alone.

“I know but Nora and Ren are still out there.”

They spun their heads around again as a gunshot from nearby rang out followed by another roar, but this was somehow much closer than the one before.

… Up the mountain, outside the Nuckelavee’s cave.

Ren paused for a moment enabling Nora to catch up.

“We never get the easy path, do we?”

Nora stretched her back resting her hands on the back of her head.

“Easy is no fun anyway. Are you okay?”

Ren gave a confident nod and hummed.

“You?”

Nora looked over to him.

“I have you here don’t I.”

“Always.”

Nora started to skip ahead rejuvenated at the prospect of climbing a mountain. She beckoned Ren forwards with her hand.

“Come on, there’s more than one way up a mountain.”

Ren smiled along with a breathless laughed happy over avoiding Kuroyuri and having Nora with him. Nora turned towards him waving to gain his attention.

“HEY! There’s wind blowing through this cave. Think it might lead to the peak, or a shortcut?”

As Ren caught up beside Nora his response was halted as he was hit in the face by a flag clearly caught on the strong winds. Nora giggled at him as he struggled to free himself.

“yes, yes, very funny.”

Ren’s smile fell as he saw the Kuroyuri symbol on the flag. He quickly dropped the flag and ran into the cave leaving a confused Nora to catch up.

“Ren wait.”

As Nora finally caught up to Ren she could see he was visibly shaken as she herself was shocked by what she saw.

“Oh my god!”

All around were discarded weapons, armour and shields while the walls were decorated in stained blood of varying times. What surprised both however was that the cave was empty since the Nuckelavee is supposed to be hibernating at this time. A distant gunshot drew their attention towards the other end of the cave where another hole acted as cause of the wind. From their viewpoint they could see the remains of Kuroyuri and the rustling of trees in the forest that signalled the Nuckelavee was heading directly for Kuroyuri.

Nora took Ren’s hand in her own clutching it tightly as they heard the roar of the Nuckelavee knowing they would have to not only go back to their hometown but also fight a Grimm they stood minimal chance defeating.

… A few moments before in the forests outside Kuroyuri.

Ruby growled in frustration as the second she turned away from the Nuckelavee it had bolted back towards its cave. Using her semblance, she was able to easily catch up in front of it and stood to block its path. Cursing to herself she shouted at it, her annoyance evidenced by the glare she directed towards the Grimm.

“Oi you little sack of shit, where on Anima do you think you are going, Salem has already decided that we’re going to Kuroyuri and you’re gonna do your job and devour some Huntsman like a good little Grimm.”

As the Nuckelavee turned around with Ruby some distance behind she became increasingly annoyed at its slower pace deciding to give it some motivation she jumped up into the tree line and extended Crescent Rose. Lining up her sights she aimed straight at its ass, a gunshot rang out and echoed in the distance as she fired a standard round at the Gimm’s behind which did no damage to it but undoubtedly anger it leading to the Nuckelavee to increase its pace, heading in a much more quickened manner towards Kuroyuri. Ruby let out a sigh of relief as he mission was coming to an end she would no longer have to babysit a Grimm.

 


	10. Chapter 10

… atop a tree near Kuroyuri.

Ruby was perched on a branch, leaning against the centre of the tree with one leg hanging off she rested Crescent Rose in her lap with her eyes closed determined to keep her breathing and by extension herself under control. While glad that the job was over both the thought of returning to Salem’s castle and the distant battle with the Nuckelavee both weighed heavily on her. Normally Ruby felt relaxed after finishing a job for Salem but this time whenever she heard the distant shouting of those fighting the Grimm she got this sinking feeling in her stomach that refused to subside.

“This is just ridiculous I’ve killed huntsman before why is this time any different.”

Becoming increasingly infuriated with herself she scowled and stood up and used her semblance to reach a higher perch upon a tree noticeably closer to Kuroyuri. Fully extending Crescent Rose she planted it in the tree and peered through the scope scanning the nearby village. At first nothing stood out until her eyes fell upon her uncle visibly injured, his right hand resting over his bandaged stomach as he was lying against a tree but what scared her even more was to his side Neo was leaning over him and before she could even process this a shot rang out.

As a bullet implanted itself in the tree narrowly between both Neo and Qrow’s heads, she realized it had been her who had fired. _This can’t be happening Neo works for Roman, she must be trying to kill Qrow but if Neo is here then who is fighting the Nuckelavee_. Seemingly answering Ruby’s question, Neo turned to warn her team about the presence of a sniper, as she followed the girls line of sight she stopped upon the sight of a blonde figure whose sword was impaled into one of the Nuckelavee’s arms.

As the figure looked over towards Neo, Ruby’s recognition of him was instant as Jaune stood in Ruby’s sights. Immediately her mind was overwhelmed with so many voices shouting it might as well been white noise, falling from her grasp Crescent Rose was lost dropping it to the ground as she grasped her head, screaming in pain collapsing down in on herself she soon followed dropping some metres to the ground in a loud thud, the pain she felt from the fall paled in comparison to the one in her head.

“You really thought you would never see them again?”

Ruby’s mother stood in front of her with a look of contempt. Still grasping her head Ruby looked up to her, shouting in a vain attempt to overcome the noise.

“MAKE IT STOP!”

Summer knelt down and took Ruby’s chin in her hand before slapping her away with her other.

“YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST RELY ON OTHER PEOPLE! THIS IS YOUR MESS… YOU HANDLE IT.”

Summer took a deep breath as she closed her eyes while pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance until sitting next to Ruby crossing her legs next to her daughters slumped form. She rested her hand on top of Ruby’s head in between Ruby’s hands and rocked it slightly.

“Think about it this way, either their working with Neo, which makes them traitors or Neo is working with them and she’s waiting for the chance to kill you and everyone you care about since you murdered Roman.”

“A GRIFFIN murdered Roman not me.”

“You really think she cares about pedantics.”

As Ruby lay there slumped over with her head in her hands, a quiet ringing pierced its way through all the shouting and white noise. Looking for its source she sees her scroll some feet in front of her, she didn’t know how long it had been ringing but only one person would be calling her, and she knew the consequences of failing to answer. Slowly she shuffled forwards, reaching out for it with her hand, she swiped to accept the call and placed it against her head.

“Yes.”

“Why did you take so long to answer?”

Salem’s voice was both annoyed and threatening. Fearing the cost if she told the truth she opted for a half lie and due to the pain in her head she spoke through gritted teeth.

“You damn Nuckelavee is being a handful but after much arguing it’s at the village and I can hear the fighting.”

Salem took a moment to respond. Ruby feared she could see through her slight deception.

“… Very good but the plans have changed. Tyrian has just returned in a bundle of mess and missing a tail thanks to the actions of those huntsman. So, while it’s fighting them, your going to kill them and prove your usefulness to me.”

“It’ll be done.”

Salem hung up after Ruby’s answer and Ruby growled in annoyance throwing her scroll towards Crescent Rose. Summer scoffed at her.

“Well I guess you have to handle it now.”

...Kuroyuri.

Neo had her blade going through one of the Nuckelavee’s arms while Jaune had his sword through the other with Ren using Jaune’s shield as well to pin it trapping the Nuckelavee down.

“NORA”

Ren looked up at his partner who was stood on top the building in front of them however instead of killing the Horse part of the Grimm her attention was dawn by a hooded figure stood at the entrance that was walking towards them. As everyone’s eyes turned to them when the Nuckelavee saw the figure it increased it’s thrashing and attempts to get free, Jaune and Neo was noticeably beginning to struggle at keeping its arms pinned.

Jaune shouted at the hooded red figure.

“Hey, I don’t know why you’re here but care to lend a hand?”

At his question the figure stopped and scanned each of them until in an instant all that was left was rose petals and a loud mechanical noise and gunshot filled the air. Nora screamed as the figure flew at her hitting her and propelling themselves and Nora through a wall and into a nearby building.

“NORA!”

Ren got up and ran towards the building. The Nuckelavee sensing its freedom began to thrash and screech even more until it had managed to rip up through Jaune’s sword and freeing its hand, with its free hand it swiped toward Neo who had to remove her umbrella and dodge its attacking enabling it to stand, forcing both Jaune and Neo to focus on it while Ren went to check on Nora.

“NORA!”

Ren scanned through the windows and doorways but there was no sign of movement until a Nora shaped projectile was thrown at him crashing into him and into the opposing building. As Ren looked down at Nora it became clear that she was unconscious, resting her down prepared himself for the follow attack from the attacker to come from the building but as a few seconds passed he became increasingly annoyed at the lack of their presence.

“STOP HIDING YOU COWARD!”

as Jaune looked over to check on his teammates he was hit in the back by one of the Nuckelavee’s arms, while he was mid-air another gunshot rang out and the figure appeared on of him, unleashing a flurry of attacks on him as he continued his descent, they placed their feet on Jaunes chest and fired point blank propelling him next to Qrow and the attacker landed next to the Nuckelavee folding their weapon away in the process, while the Nuckelavee had turned its focus solely on Neo.

As Nora regained consciousness she struggled to get up on her feet while Jaune was coughing and was surprised that his aura hadn’t depleted. The Figure shouted.

“STOP!”

And while everyone did indeed stop to turn to them, even more surprisingly the Nuckelavee also stopped its attacks on Neo and shrieked away from the lone figure. As everyone gathered around Jaune and Qrow, Jaune stood and rested his arm on Ren’s shoulder.

“Why are you helping a Grimm?”

“Why are you helping HER?”

The figure responded pointing a finger at Neo and continued.

“SHE helped bring the fall of Beacon!”

Neo looked away with shame at the accusation. While Jaune stepped forward enabling the semi-conscious Qrow to see the figure and from his position under the hood.

“She’s trying to make up for what she’s done, but what’s your excuse for partnering with a Grimm?”

“RUBY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

Everyone turned their attention around to Qrow and his sudden outburst visibly confused while the hooded figure took a step back.

“Qrow your hallucinating again, Ruby isn’t here.”

Qrow turned his gaze to Jaune and pointed at the figure.

“I know my niece when I see her, stop being a fool and open your eyes kid.”

As everyone turned back to the attacker, Jaune took in their profile. _Red cape, Rose Petals, speed and an oversized weapon, but it can’t be Ruby._ Any response died in Jaune’s throat as the hooded figure brought down their hood and everyone stepped back in shock.

“RUBY!”

As Jaune shouted her name she visibly winced in pain as he looked at her, he noticed some visible changes since the last time he saw her, her eyes and turned from a shiny silver to a dull grey while the bags under her eyes made it clear she wasn’t sleeping well. What Jaune had focused on however was the pendant on Ruby’s collar where Cinder’s symbol stood proudly.

“you’re working with Cinder?”

Ruby looked at him straight in the eyes, what he didn’t know and couldn’t see was the internal turmoil inside her head as numerous voices continued to shout at her and she her only focus was on her task at hand.

“Technically I’m working for Salem.”

“But why? We’re your friends and family!”

“Do friends just abandon partners atop towers because I feel like me and Pyrrha should’ve been warned about that while family just acts as nothing but a source of disappointment.”

Jaune was shocked at the callous nature in which Ruby mentioned Pyrrha while Qrow started to laugh, coughing and drawing everyone’s attention.

“you sound just like my sister.”

Suddenly the Nuckelavee charged at the team, evidently becoming impatient at the lack of fighting, Jaune was forced to stand in its way or risk it charging straight into the injured Qrow, however before it could crash into Jaune Ruby launched herself towards a nearby wall and combining her semblance and weapon propelled herself at the Grimm pushing it into Neo and Nora. Jaune was surprised by Ruby’s actions as he turned to her she looked at him.

“I’m not just going to let it kill him without a fight”

Ruby spun around extending her scythe and catching Jaune’s neck and pulling him towards her, she ducked under him and swept his feet out from under him, pointing Crescent Rose at Jaune’s face.

“Granted you aren’t really putting up a fight either.”

As Ruby fired Ren threw his dagger at Ruby causing it to ricochet of her scythe and missing Jaune’s head by inches, she turned her attention towards him leaving to Jaune for later.

“Seriously‽ Go help your girlfriend, leave me with vomit boy.”

Ren replied with peppering Ruby with bullets from StormFlower as he ran to Jaune’s aid, this forced Ruby to dodge with her semblance or risk wasting her aura so early in the fight. Ruby landed on top or a building and turned her attention to the Nuckelavee which was busy fighting Nora and Neo, Nora had just her hammer to slam into the riders face disorienting the beast while as Neo used the handle of the cane to swing of a tree towards it Ruby interrupted by throwing herself at Neo as the two landed on the ground they rolled around fighting until Ruby ended on top taking both of Neos wrists in her left hand she pinned them above her, pulling out a hidden knife Ruby used her other hand to slam it through Neo’s and into the ground eliciting a scream from her. Ruby stood up and looked down at Neo who was struggling in vain to remove the knife as everyone paused shocked by Ruby’s brutality.

“Relax, your aura will heal it up in no time, if you don’t die of course.”

“hey kids.”

Qrow beckoned Jaune and Ren over quietly so as to not get Ruby’s attention, whispering to them a plan he handed Jaune something covered in a cloth and his flask, Jaune put it in his pocket and looked to Ren who both nodded at each other. They turned and Jaune shouted to Nora.

“Nora, keep Ruby busy we’ll handle the Nuckelavee.”

Nora responded by slamming her hammer into the Nuckelavee’s face and using the momentum to flip over it landing in front of Ruby, preventing her from finishing off Neo.

“whatever you’re gonna do you better do it fast.”

As Nora stood still Ruby used her speed and scythe to run circles around her, all attempts by Ruby to break Nora’s defence were deflected and as she continued to run Nora became bored, swinging her hammer she caught Ruby dead centre in the chest from seemingly nowhere propelling her back into the house she had launched Nora into. Nora huffed and rested her hammer on her shoulder.

“That’s for earlier.”

As Nora distracted Ruby, Jaune and Ren led the Nuckelavee into the biggest building they could find as Ren sprayed short bursts from his pistols to agitate the Grimm into going further inside Jaune ran behind it, jumping of a nearby wall he stabbed it with all his might in one of its back legs causing the beast to collapse its back. As it shrieked in pain it attempted to swat at Jaune, but the restricted space prevented it from reaching him, as he stood up he took his sword and stabbed its other back leg for good measure. Ren took his dagger and slammed it into the horse’s head incapacitating its bottom half as the rider continued to shriek in pain. Jaune reached into his pocket and took off the cloth revealing a dust fire crystal, wrapping it back up he undid the flask and soaked the crystal and cloth in strong alcohol before throwing it next to the Nuckelavee. As Ren and Jaune left the building the rider part of the Nuckelavee continued to struggle in an attempt to move itself, outside Ren turned and fired a single shot at the crystal causing an explosion that engulfed the Nuckelavee, causing the building to collapse on top of it. Satisfied that the Grimm was beaten they turned and ran to help Nora and Neo.

Ruby and Nora had their weapons locked together as each fought to overpower the other, a small line of sweat trickled down Ruby’s forehead that signalled to Nora she was winning. As a sudden explosion close enough for them to feel the warm they both disengaged and backed away. Ruby turned at saw the remains of the Nuckelavee slowly evaporate into smoke.

“You IDIOTS! Do you have any idea how pissed Salem is going to be?”

Ren ran over to support Nora while Jaune checked on Neo, he removed the knife eliciting a small scream from Neo. Before anyone could respond to Ruby a faint beeping rang out in the distance.

“Guys I think I hear something.”

Jaune turned his attention to the direction of the sound and saw two Mistral airships descend onto their position. Ruby growled in anger as she could manage 3 trainee huntsman and a criminal, she couldn’t also deal with a full Mistral patrol, she turned to Jaune and the rest.

“Consider yourselves lucky.”

Using her semblance, she retreated out of Kuroyuri and into the forest, making the return to Salem in failure. as she ran she pulled out her scroll and began calling, the scroll rang once then was answered and Salem’s voice came through.

“I trust your mission was a success.”

“I’m afraid not, just as I was about to deal with them a Mistral patrol intervened.”

“… I’m not very tolerant of failure Ruby.”

Ruby shook at the tone of Salem voice

“I succeeded in bringing the Nuckelavee to them, if you had told me from the onset I would have to fight them I could’ve set an ambush.”

“I’m even less tolerant of excuses Ruby. Nonetheless, you are right in that you did fulfil your first mission and while you may not have been a complete failure you did demonstrate you could be trusted to act alone. Return to me and we can discuss the consequences of your failure.”

Ruby hung up and shuddered at the thought of what Salem may do.

… Back in Kuroyuri.

As Ren and Nora carried Qrow onto the airship Jaune helped Neo carrying her umbrella and cane while a medic checked over her wounds. Jaune turned to the medic as the ships took off.

“how did you find us out here?”

“We were on patrol, heard the explosion and saw the smoke. No one has been out here for years thought something might be wrong.”

As Jaune put down the weapons he rested a hand on Neo’s shoulder who turned and smiled at him.

“well we’re glad you found us.”

As a few minutes passed the medic turned back to them.

“when we clear the mountains brace yourself for the view.”

Unsure what he meant Jaune went to stand beside Neo but was stopped by Qrow’s hand reaching out to grab his, turning in worry Jaune looked towards him.

“Hey kid, you got my flask?”

Jaune scoffed and retrieved it from his pocket handing it back to Qrow who emptied its remaining content in a few gulps before putting it away and collapsing back on the ground to rest.


	11. Chapter 11

…. Salem’s castle

Ruby awoke tied back to the chair she was in when she first arrived. Even though it seemed the room was empty except for her she felt this overbearing presence that was directed towards her. She struggled in her bonds testing their strength before slumping inwards accepting her fate. Suddenly, Salem appeared behind her resting her hands on Ruby’s shoulders, this caused Ruby to tense up in fear.

“Don’t fret my dear Rose you’re merely paying the consequences for your failure.”

Ruby shook her head side to side in a vain attempt to lessen the impact of Salem’s words. After she had settled down Salem lent down so her head was against Ruby’s and she spoke quietly into Ruby’s ear.

“I could sense the uncertainty in your voice when I demanded you kill your friends. I realized that perhaps I made a mistake by giving you so much free will, while you demonstrated your loyalty to me the way how you spoke to me clearly showed how your heart wasn’t in it.”

Salem straightened and walked around in front of Ruby while keeping a hand rested on her shoulder.

“But I’m able to recognise my mistakes and more importantly I’m willing to fix them.”

As Salem stared down at her Ruby averted her gaze, opting to maintain her silence in fear of saying the wrong thing.

“What’s that old saying? Winning hearts and minds? I’m sure they never really imagined it in this sense, but you have to take what is useful.”

Salem continued walking around until she was back behind Ruby resting both her hands on our shoulders again.

“So here is what’s going to happen. Your punishment for failing me is I am going to be taking some of your memories and we’re going to work together to create a much more docile and useful Ruby.”

Ruby’s eyes widened as she realized what Salem was going to do, turn her own memories against her. In response to Salem she restarted her struggles to break her bonds and twisted her neck painfully around, so she could look at Salem and begged her to stop.

“no, no, please you can’t, anything else but please don’t take them from me. I’ve been nothing but loyal to you, I’m sorry I couldn’t kill them, but I wasn’t ready I promise next time I will be.”

Salem just shook her head dismissively at ruby before staring at her silver eyes piercing straight into Ruby’s soul.

“Begging is unbecoming of you Ruby, I expected better. If anything, this proves my point even further, now sit tight and prepare yourself for your punishment.”

Slowly the room darkened as the lights dimmed making it harder for Ruby to see Salem, suddenly Salem’s hands grasped Ruby’s head eliciting a scream from Ruby as it felt like her whole body was on fire, she struggled fiercely to escape Salem’s grasp but as she tried to blink the tears out of her eyes she found herself back at the Battle of Beacon as she took in her surroundings she heard the faint words from Salem.

“let’s start backwards, somewhere recent.”

Running towards the half-destroyed Beacon Tower with Weiss beside her she gasped at the Dragon Grimm that was creating so much mayhem. As they came up to the tower they saw Jaune standing there seemingly doing nothing.

“Jaune, where’s Pyrrha? Is she okay?”

Jaune spun around clearly surprised at their sudden appearance.

“Pyrrha is up their trying to fight the person behind this.”

Ruby collapsed Crescent Rose and put her hands on Jaune’s shoulders shaking him gently.

“Why aren’t you fighting with her? You should never abandon your partner?”

Jaune pushed Ruby back as he pointed towards the carnage around them.

“FIGHT! Look around Ruby Beacons fallen and if she chooses to throw her life away then that’s her choice.”

“THROW AWAY! You’re her partner and team leader it’s your job to keep her safe, if your too much of a coward to go up there then me and Weiss will, isn’t that right Weiss?”

A moment of silence stood as Ruby waited for Weiss’ answer however as it failed to come she spun around to look at her partner who only looked away in shame.

“Weiss?”

Weiss held her hands behind her and took a few steps back.

“Jaune’s right Ruby look at that thing, it took all eight of us to beat a Nevermore during initiation there’s no way we can take on that dragon and who ever is behind all this with just us.”

Ruby looked at Weiss with shock.

“You promised to be the best partner ever and you’re just going to let Pyrrha die defending us.”

Weiss took a step forward and grabbed Ruby’s hand.

“Yes, your right and it’s my job to look out for my partner and I’m telling you that if we go up their we’re going to die, is that what your mother would want?”

Ruby yanked her hand free from Weiss’ grip and pushed her back.

“HOW DARE YOU USE MY MOTHER AS AN EXCUSE! JUST CAUSE YOUR BOTH TO SCARED TO GO UP THERE.”

Ruby spun back around and began walking into Beacon Tower.

“I’m just not going to sit back and let our friends die.”

Before either of them could answer Ruby used her semblance to jump up the elevator shaft bouncing her way up of the walls unto she reached the top. Bursting out of the doors she landed and fully extended her scythe expecting to aid Pyrrha in her fight, instead she saw Pyrrha towering over Cinder who was attempting to crawl away from Pyrrha in fear as she had been disarmed, her crawling stopped as she hit her back against the remains of Ozpin’s table. As Pyrrha raised her spear seemingly to kill Cinder Ruby shouted.

“Pyrrha what are you doing?”

Pyrrha maintained her stance and refused to look at Ruby instead ensuring there was nowhere for Cinder to run to.

“She’s the one behind all this Ruby besides she has the Fall Maiden powers, she can’t be allowed to keep those, Ozpin promised them to me.”

“MAIDENS? We’re supposed to be Huntress Pyrrha we don’t just kill people.”

Pyrrha spun around turning her spear into its rifle form and pointed it at Ruby who took a step back in worry. Before Pyrrha could answer however an arrowhead appeared through her chest, her eyes widened in shock as she grasped at the wound slowly falling to her knees. Ruby ran and lent down to her.

“PYRRHA! You’ll be okay, why did you do that?”

She looked over to the still collapsed Cinder who weakly held her bow in her hand before she slowly stood up and stood behind Ruby as Pyrrha’s body slowly turned to ashes.

“Think about who Pyrrha was Ruby. She was selfless, compassionate and a hero. Then Ozpin summons her to his office and now she’s willing to kill me to gain power for herself.”

Ruby’s eyes blurred with tears as she turned to look up at Cinder.

“Ozpin? What do you mean? What did he do to her?”

Cinder looked down at Ruby with compassionate eyes and rested a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“What he always does, he takes innocent children and turns them into weapons, he did it with Pyrrha and he would’ve done it to you to given the chance. Or did you really think he chose to move you up two years out of some altruistic act?”

As Ruby looked back down at the remains of Pyrrha she finally disintegrated leaving little left, as Ruby picked up Pyrrha’s circlet her mind was overcome with emotions. The idea that Pyrrha was willing to kill someone for some Maiden powers, how Ozpin was turning people into weapons, the fact that not only Jaune but Weiss just abandoned their partners to keep themselves safe.

As Ruby continued to process everything her eyes slowly started to shine until she screamed and was blinded by a white light.

… Menagerie

Blake was sat down resting and processing the fact that the White Fang were both on the island and still after her. She stared at the contents of her mug, the still long cold tea forgotten as she was deep in thought. Sun had recovered from his recent injuries, but Blake felt like she was still being punished for her actions as everyone around had been hurt. First, we failed to protect Yang from Adam a failure which cost Yang her arm. Second, she couldn’t stop Weiss’ father from taking her back to Atlas despite her desire to stay and continue searching for Ruby. Thirdly, she abandoned not only her team but turned her back when they needed her most, with Ruby missing it mattered more than ever they stayed together to find Ruby but after a few days her resolve broke and she did what she always did and ran from her problems, running to the only place left where she could feel safe, Menagerie, but the presence of the White Fang meant that even here didn’t calm her nerves.

Slowly her grip on the long-abandoned tea tightened as she found herself trapped in a vicious cycle of thought, there was a sudden shattering sound as cold water covered Blake’s lap and pain spread throughout her hand, gasping in reaction she realized what she had done. Rushing over to the sink she gathered a towel for herself and one for the table and chair, as Blake ran back to her spot the door slides open revealing the presence of her mother who rushed over to aid her.

“Blake darling are you okay?”

Kali grasped her daughters inured hand as she tended to the wound.

“Forget about the mess, we can clean that up later.”

She slowly led her daughter by her hand to a nearby sofa sitting in the centre and leading Blake to sit next to her. As her mother tended to her wound Blake timidly began to lean her head against her mother’s shoulder, as she did so the last barrier broke and she broke out into a fit of tears, Kali was quick to comfort her as she rested her spare hand on her daughter’s head with small strokes through her hair alongside quiet words of comfort. As her crying slowly died down and they fell into a regime of Kali stroking her hair and Blake silently whimpering, Kali finished tending to her daughter’s hand and lifted Blake up and next to her slowly turning her to look face to face.

“so, you want to tell me what cause this? Cause I strongly doubt you had gained such a strong level of attachment to a clearly long abandoned cup of tea.”

Blake offered a weak laugh as she rested her head in her mother’s lap.

“It’s just I’m nothing but a failure and everything I do ends in someone I care for getting hurt.”

Kali scoffed at this as she continued to rest her hand on Blake’s head while running her free hand through her own hair.

“Blake, one of the most important life lessons is to learn from your mistakes, but what is even more important is to remember that even if something ends in failure it doesn’t diminish the success that came before it.”

Blake turned so the back of her head rested on Kali’s lap, so she could look up at her as she spoke.

“While you may have left the White Fang after us you nonetheless succeeded in seeing it as an organisation that needed to change as we did. You succeeded in getting into Beacon not because you were a Faunus but because you deserved to be there. You succeeded in making friends with not just humans but a Schnee of all people, you gained the trust of your team and you trusted them. Just because you are home doesn’t make these meaningless, the Fall of Beacon was a tragedy that nobody could have prevented and I’m sure that just as you’re here to move forward, they’re doing what they need to move forward as well.”

Blake sat up and looked towards her nodding slowly as she wiped the tears away from her eyes.

“Your right. You’re always right, I just feel so useless sometimes.”

Kali embraced her in a hug before she stood up and turned to pull up her daughter as they turned to leave the room.

“So Blake, what’s the plan?”


	12. Chapter 12

Salem’s castle…

Ruby was slumped in her chair, wrists bruised from pulling in vain against her bonds. Her breaths were shallow while her eyes refused to open as her cheeks were stained by layers of tears that had long since dried. Salem was wiping her hands-on Ruby’s cape before throwing aside, what she had dirtied them with Ruby had no idea. Slowly Salem made her way back behind Ruby standing purposefully out of sight.

“So, where do you think we should go next?”

Ruby made no obvious signs that she even registered hearing Salem’s voice, but she knew she heard, Ruby was her blank cheque, her canvas, she knew every aspect of her work space and could tell the difference between when Ruby was and wasn’t listening. Except this time, it was different Salem needed to include Ruby in her own torture, no longer could she be a passive if unwilling participant. Spinning on her heels Salem stood in front of Ruby looking down at her prey, slowly she raised her hand to cup Ruby’s cheek before moving it down to her chin and lifting it, so she could see those dull greyed eyes, however instead all she got was her eyelids as Ruby tried to capture as much rest in her short reprieve as possible.

“RUBY!”

Ruby’s eyes shot open like a deer in headlights, staring straight into Salem’s red eyes unsure whether to be grateful or terrified that she was back in the real world. As she looked up at Salem a small smirk developed on Salem’s face, dread filled Ruby dashing any hope that her punishment was at an end.

“Ruby, this is important. Where should we go next? The formation of team RWBY? How about we go even further, who doesn’t love a good origin story? I wonder what it was like for such a small child to have to grow up without her own mother, living in a house with a half-sister and a father who every time he looked at you was reminded of Summer.”

Ruby’s head was still locked in Salem’s titan grip on her chin which only weakened slightly to allow her to speak.

“Why do you care your just going to change them all anyway.”

Salem chuckled slightly which sent a shiver to Ruby’s core

“Because for once in this Ruby I’m giving you a choice, where to the middle or beginning, your team or your family?”

“My team IS my family.”

Salem scoffed at her while rolling her eyes.

“I’m sure that for an idealistic child such as yourself that is sadly true but what type of team just leaves you here. So, what will it be Ruby, team or family?”

Ruby renewed the struggle with her bonds while looking side to side in some desperate appeal for someone to help her, except no one was coming and she knew that but refused to believe it. Slowly her eyes moved back to the centre staring back into Salem’s knowing glare while her bodies weak attempts at escape soon died down again. In the corner of Ruby’s eye here attention was caught by the only other thing of colour in the room, her cape discarded off to the side, Salem followed Ruby’s eyes glancing to see what had caught her prey’s attention before turning back.

“Come on now Ruby focus, team or-”

“TEAM!”

Salem released her grasp on Ruby humming in approval.

“And please do tell why?”

Ruby looked down in shame, wrists straining against her bonds as she tried to shrink into herself for safety.

“You’re right, what type of team would just leave me here. When you told me to kill at Kuroyuri it hurt more seeing that team JNPR had stayed together and not a single one of mine had joined them. They just left me.”

Salem walked over to where she had thrown Ruby’s cape picking it up she brought it to her face and smelt the mixture of roses and strawberries, the slight Summer smell sent shivers of disgust through her body as she grasped it tightly between her hands. Turning she walked behind Ruby draping her in the cape and rested her hands-on Ruby’s shoulders holding them tightly in her grasp.

“Once I’m done we can move onto your childhood, but I’ll promise you this, even though it disgusts me I’ll let you keep the cape, but it won’t stand for what you want it to.”

Shocked Ruby twisted her neck to try and look at Salem however her strong grasp on her shoulders prevented her.

“You said one or the other.”

“I said I would give you a choice, I NEVER said it would matter.”

Ruby closed her eyes in guilt as she was consumed by Salem’s darkness. As she opened them she realized that she was surrounded by a pile of luggage, between the mess she could make out the faint form of someone who’s outfit consisted almost entirely of white.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!”

Mistral…

Jaune, Nora, Ren and Neo were all sat around a table across two sofas, as Jaune was helping Neo remove the bandages that were wrapped around her hands to help her wounds heal, the group were rather disappointed with their meeting with the Haven headmaster as delays at catching the Spring Maiden meant more time Ruby was left alone in Salem’s clutches. Neo stood as she passed the bandages to Jaune who threw them away, stretching her hands she was surprised at how fast they had healed, all that remained were two small lines of slightly discoloured skin otherwise. Reaching for her umbrella she did some practice swings testing the strain of her hand when there was a sudden knock at the door, everyone looked between the door and themselves.

Jaune slowly made his way over to the door grabbing the handle he opened it slowly revealing the presence of relatively small looking and timid boy with dark hair, stepping to the side so the rest of his team could see they all were as confused as each other.

“Can I help you?”

“Umm. Yea? Is there a Ruby Rose here?”

Suddenly Ren and Nora stood from their seats while Neo took a step towards the door with her umbrella still in hand. Nora glared at the kid before asking why. The kid only held his hands together in front of his chest fumbling with his words until Qrow suddenly burst into view resting his hands on the kid’s shoulders.

“I FOUND HIM!”

Qrow was swaying side by side giggling with laughter as he pushed himself off Oscar and into the room before crashing onto the sofa.

“Umm, I think her uncle could use some help.”

Nora looked over at Qrow who was still mumbling about finding him before turning to Jaune and the guest.

“Is he drunk?”

“I get the idea this is normal for him.”

Everyone slowly turned back to Oscar again aware of his presence as Jaune closed the door.

“And who are you?”

“Well my name is Oscar Pine, but you probably know me as Professor Ozpin.”

Everyone took a step back shocked at the statement as Qrow continued his drunken laughter raising his arms in the air in triumph before collapsing onto the floor

“I DID IT!”

Nora put her hands in front of her mouth in surprise before checking on Qrow.

“It’s okay he just fell asleep.”

Jaune placed his hand on Oscar’s shoulder drawing his and Ozpin’s attention.

“I’m sorry but Ruby isn’t here, she was taken… by Salem.”

Oscar wasn’t sure who that was but by the dread in the air he could tell it wasn’t good as Ozpin confirmed his suspicions. Jaune shook the two from their internal conversation looking down at the kid.

“So, how are you also Ozpin?”

“Well.”

Somewhere in Anima…

Yang had just finished punching out some drunkard, turning and sitting back on her bike. As she turned the key into the ignition she paused for a moment as the engine came to life looking over a picture of her team, her eyes focusing on Ruby. Staring at it she was taken back to before she left, she had just finished adding the final touches to her new arm and had turned to her bike readying Bumblebee before leaving to find Ruby when her attention was drawn to some coughing behind her.

“So, your leaving then?”

Yang looked at the worried expression of her dad which was quickly replaced with a weak smile as he ran his hand through his hair.

“I guess you’re done moping?”

Yang looked down at her prosthetic arm giving it a look over.

“I done feeling useless, I should’ve gone with Jaune to look for Ruby. What kind of sister am I that I didn’t do anything?”

Tai stepped forward slowly taking his daughters head into his own hands.

“You did what you had to. To be ready to get back out there. If you left before you were ready I would’ve been worried at the prospect of losing you as well as Ruby.”

Yang shook herself free from his hands turning around and clenching he hands against Bumblebees metal frame.

“You think we’ve lost Ruby?”

“Don’t get me wrong I have no intention of giving up hope but it’s been months since the fall of Beacon and the mind wonders to the extremes. I know though that you’ll stop at nothing to get her back.”

“But I could’ve found her by now, brought her home.”

“That may well be true but as I said before you took a hit, you were knocked out of the ring and jumping back in before your ready is a sure-fire way to getting knocked back down again and you might not get back up again. That terrifies me I can’t lose both of you.”

“You won’t lose either of us, I promise.”

Just as her dad was about to continue her memory faded as another voice pierced it’s way into her head.

“Hey Girlie.”

Yang rolled her eyes turning to the drunk that she had just punched, angry at him for distracting her from her thoughts.

“Seriously, this isn’t over?”

The drunk got up from where he had fallen giving her a toothy grin.

“I hear you’re looking for someone.”

…

Weiss was pacing back and forth in the cargo bay of the ship she had used to escape Atlas, she had a disagreement with the pilot regarding a distress call they overheard. Ruby was watching off to the side placing her hand on Weiss’ shoulder.

“This is preposterous, I’m a huntress I should be allowed to help people.”

Ruby used her hand to spin Weiss around, so they were looking into each other’s eyes.

“Sometimes you have to choose your battles Weiss besides do you honestly think you would be able to fight a horde of Grimm in what is essentially a flying bucket full of powerful dust?”

“I suppose not.”

Weiss deflated as she realized the reality of the situation before turning and looking out one of the windows.

“I just hate feeling useless.”

“HA, the one thing you will never be is useless, you’re far to stubborn to let that happen.”

Wiess turned to look at Ruby.

“I suppose that’s a compliment?”

Ruby spun around letting her cape wave round her until she jumped up onto one of the boxes resting her head in hands, shoulders taking the weight onto her legs as she looked at Weiss.

“Hey, I’m just here to try and talk some sense into you, no use prancing around the subject.”

Weiss huffed in annoyance turning away from Ruby who maintained the biggest grin clearly overcome with her apparent victory.


	13. Chapter 13

Salem’s castle…

Salem rested her hand on Ruby’s shoulder, slowly increasing the pressure of her grip until she elicited a groan of pain ensuring that Ruby remained awake, Ruby kept her head facing downwards staring into her lap unable to meet Salem’s gaze. Salem moved her hand upwards stroking Ruby’s hair menacingly causing Ruby to shiver in fear, she grabbed a handful of Ruby’s hair pulling backwards to force Ruby to look at her. Grey bloodshot eyes stared into red and black ones, rapidly shifting between the two unsure which one was less terrifying.

Salem spoke slowly and with fake concern. “You look tired my dear, I’ll leave you to rest here for some time. One of Cinder’s pets will come and release you, I expect to find you waiting patiently in your room until need.”

Ruby shook her head in affirmation rapidly wanting nothing more than to finally be free of this cursed room, Salem responded by tightening her grasp on Ruby’s hair causing her to wince in pain.

“Am I understood?”

“Y-YES YES!” Ruby’s voice broke as she struggled to maintain consciousness

Salem released her grip and spun around to leave allowing Ruby to once again collapse into the chair her body only held in place by the restraints linking her to the chair. As Salem reached for the door handle she stopped becoming distracted by the laughing coming from behind her, looking back at the shaking form of Ruby laughing weakly she raised an eyebrow as Ruby lifted her head to look at her. Ruby took a moment to compose herself as she held Salem’s attention.

“you know I thought being a hero wold be easy. Beat the bad guys, save the damsel: sounded simple enough. Seems pretty naïve now, nobody tells you that the bad guys don’t play by the rules.”

Salem retracted her hand from the door turning to face Ruby properly.

“Rules? Did you think this was a game of chess child? That my pawns would only move forward once.”

Ruby gave a weak laugh as she lent backward staring up at the ceiling.

“Yea something like that.”

Salem turned back swinging the door open and stepping through while laughing in such a way that caused a shiver to run down Ruby’s spine. As the laughing slowly faded into the distance Ruby was happy to embrace the darkness of sleep, something she felt she had been deprived of for some time.

Somewhere in Mistral…

Weiss was slumped into the corner of her cage, trapped within some bandit camp. Curled up holding her knees to her chest her head buried into them. Ruby was knelt in front of her resting her hands-on Weiss’ knees.

“Come on Weiss now isn’t the time to give up.” She spoke cautiously, fully aware of Weiss’ vulnerable state.

Weiss just laughed as rose her head to look at the illusion.

“What’s the point? All I did was trade one cage for another. Looks like I’m finally alone, there’s no way father will even contemplate paying their ransom. At least this way I’m out of his hair.”

“That’s not true, you’re never alone you have me!”

Weiss scoffed as she kept her stare locked onto the figment in front of her.

“Right, Alone with a representation of my collapsing mental health and all the summons in the world.”   

Weiss curled back into the safety of her legs and quietly whispered signalling an end to the conversation.

“Just leave me alone. If you somehow come up with a brilliant plan to get us out, then I’m all ears but until then just be quiet.”

Weiss’ attempts at wallowing in self-pity were interrupted as a sudden commotion caused the bandits watching her to leave hastily with apparent disregard for watching her. As she looked up Weiss was quick to realize that not only were the guards gone but so was hallucination of Ruby, a pang of guilt hit Weiss, feeling that it was unfair to treat Ruby so coldly even if she wasn’t real.

Weiss tested her the bonds wrapped around her wrist as and idea took root in her head. If she could summon a miniature version of her knight, then he could cut them with his sword. She struggled to get her hand into the correct position due to the tightness of the rope but as she spread out her right palm a small glyph appeared, and her little knight rose out slowly.

Leaning back onto the heels of her feet, Weiss watched as her summoned knight went to work slowly cutting his way through the rope. As she waited she took the time to properly survey her surroundings, annoyingly most of her view was blocked by a series of tents and tarps but what she could see was what she assumed to be a majority of the bandits were all gathered around the centre of the camp, judging by the looks on their faces whatever was the commotion was causing a lot of tensed, worried expressions throughout the bandits.

A few moments before at the Bandit camp entrance…

Yang walked through the camp, flanked either side by bandits who were yet to tend to their wounds. Yang stretched out her prosthetic arm ensuring that all its parts were still functioning properly. As she made her way through the encampment she surveyed the sizable number of bandits that turned their attention towards her most looked at her menacingly with their weapons drawn. As Yang continued towards the largest tent, the obvious home of her target the number of bandits behind her grew wanting to either spectate or join in when things inevitably turned violent.

As Yang approached the front of the tent she stopped and peaked behind counting the number of bandits in case this turned south, as her gaze returned in front of her the drape covering the tents entrance was parted by hand and a figure step forward emerging from the tent, wearing a black and red outfit and a Grimm looking mask.

“Mom.”

Raven removed her mask resting it on a surface next to her tent, resting her right hand on here hip she looked her daughter up and down.

“Yang. So, after all this time you finally decided to visit me.”

Yang could feel her left hand start to shake as she struggled to contain her emotions, using her other hand she held her wrist firmly, calming herself before anyone could notice.

“You know that I searched for you. I spent years looking for you.”

Raven used her free hand in a sweeping gesture in front of her.

“And you found me. You were patient, determined and strong enough to make your dream a reality. Well done Yang, but did you have to be so rough with my men?”

“I didn’t want a fight. They started it.”

Raven smirked slightly her gaze passing between her bruised bandits.

“Well you certainly finished it. Right I’m sure this is all very overwhelming, but I must admit that you have proven yourself, so any questions you have, I’ll be happy to answer. You can stay with us tonight, I’ll even have the cooks whip up something for you.”

“That’s NOT why I’m here.” Yang snapped.

Murmurs were spreading through the bandits behind her as Yang struggled to hold back her anger, the idea that she would just sit down for a family meal disgusted her.

“What was that?”

Raven’s eyes narrowed at her daughter as Yang drew a breath, gathering herself.

“I’m not here for you, Ruby’s missing, she needs my help. Qrow left with some of my friends looking for her, I just need you to take me to her.”

“And why would I do that?”

“Because we’re family.”

Raven’s gaze turned into a scowl.

“Family, only coming around when you need something. I have to say I’m disappointed, after all you found me, didn’t you? Why not take that drive and use it to find your little sister if she really means that much to you?”

“Because you’re going to save me time. My friends were heading to Mistral but there is no guarantee they made it there, looking for her and them in Anima could take ages but dad told me how your semblance works.”

“Tai.”

“You can bond to certain people and when you do you can create a portal that takes you straight to them. You have one for dad, one for me and one more for Qrow. He promised me he would find out where Ruby is, and I trust him, so make a portal to my uncle and sister and I’ll be on my way.”

“You know, it takes real strength to march in here and demand such a favour of me, I’ve got to say I’m impressed. It’s very noble to want to help out your sister but if she’s with Qrow then she is already a lost cause.”

“What does that mean?”

“You don’t want to get mixed up in all of that Yang, Ozpin is not the man you think he is and Qrow is a fool for trusting him. I would know, I trusted him once to.”

“I don’t care what you think!”

“Your choice is your own all I’m suggesting is that instead of getting wrapped up in something too big for you, for any of us, that maybe you take a moment to wonder if you are already where you belong?”

“Save your breath, you could spout off whatever you want but nothing is going to keep me from my sister.”

“Well aren’t you stubborn.”

“I get it from my mum.”

“Well if that’s how you feel, then it sounds like we’re done here. Take her away.”

Raven turned her back on Yang making her way back into her tent, as Yang watched Raven walk away she could feel her anger turning her eyes red.

“Did you not hear me? I said SEND ME TO QROW DAMMIT!”

“THAT’S ENOUGH! You watch your mouth in front of our leader!” A bandit stood a distance from Yang drawing her attention, as she looked at him with red eyes himself and other bandits behind him tensed up.

“Make me!”

The bandit ran full speed at Yang brandishing a sword, she ducked underneath him, responding with an uppercut that landed straight centre in his chest launching him into the air and crashing through a series of tents. As the rubble settled there was a stark white figure contrasting with the grubby aesthetic of the camp, as Yang focused she realized it was Weiss trapped in some kind of cage, both stared at each other in shock.

Weiss was the first to respond, recovering from the surprise of seeing Yang first.

“YANG!”

Hearing Weiss’ voice pulled Yang back to the moment as she dropped her hand beside her.

“WEISS?”

“Alright then I guess subtlety is out.”

Weiss knelt down turning her attention towards her mini knight, she smiled as the knight nodded in understanding, he impaled his sword into the grand forming a bigger glyph which enabled him to grow bursting through the confines of the cage and freeing both himself and Weiss. Weiss ran quickly over to Yang with her knight following behind they stood back to back to each other with the knight next to her.

“What is that?” Yang asked

“Don’t worry about him, what are you doing here?”

“Well, that’s my mum and she can take us to Ruby!”

“Your mum KIDNAPPED ME?” Weiss’ eyes widened in shock at Yang’s revelations

“YOU KIDNAPPED HER!”

Before Raven could respond the bandits surrounding Yang and Weiss attempting to swarm them but before just as they were about to meet head on a thunder strike landed between the knight and a bandit keeping the two groups divided, everyone shielded their eyes from the blinding strike and turned towards Raven.

“ENOUGH!” Raven took a breath before looking towards Vernal. “thank you. Now if you people don’t keep it together this place will be crawling with Grimm. Vernal give the girl her weapon back and you two, in my tent… now!”

“Why?” Yang asked

“If you’re really going after your sister, then you need to know the truth” Raven turned entering her tent while the gathered bandits had dispersed back to their places within the camp.

Weiss let out a breath of relief.

“Sorry about…” Yang was cut off as Weiss suddenly dropped Myrtenaster and lunged at Yang giving her a hug strong enough to even her a run for her money as the strongest hugger. Weiss was struggling to hold back tears as she rested her head in Yang’s shoulder.

“I missed you so much!”

“I’ve missed you, too.” Yang returned the hug resting her hand on Weiss’ head behind them the summoned knight slowly disintegrated as Weiss’ attention focused solely on her teammate.

… Salem’s castle.

Ruby was sat at the end of her bed having been moved back to her quarters. She sat there with her head in her hands as her left leg was bouncing up and down, she had been like this since Salem had left her. Ruby continued bouncing her leg despite the pain that was spreading throughout her knee and thigh as it was acting as a distraction from the pain in her head as she struggled to bring herself together. Unbeknownst to her Salem was stood in the doorway enjoying the view.

“You know you should stop moving your leg. Don’t want you getting restless leg now.”

Ruby’s head snapped up as she looked at Salem’s smug face.

“What do you care?”

Salem tutted while shaking her head.

“My dear rose I do care if it reduces your usefulness and besides I have a job for you.”

Ruby shot up and walked to her desk, retrieving Crescent Rose and various types of dust and ammo. Ruby stared at the desk keeping her back to Salem.

“So, what is it?”

Salem walked forward behind Ruby resting her hand on Ruby’s shoulder causing her to tense up and hold her breath.

“I need you to go with Watts and Cinder to a bandit camp that has something I want.”

Ruby spun around forcing Salem’s hand off her shoulder, staring straight into Salem’s eyes.

“You want me to kill some bandits?”

Salem gave a short laugh.

“I don’t want you to kill them, I want you to do as your told. Cinder and Watts will do the talking you're just there as a show of strength and as a message to their leader. Now I hope your ready.”


	14. Chapter 14

Vernal had just finished pouring everyone’s tea, placing the tea pot back on the table you stepped back and looked towards Raven.

“You can wait outside. Thank you.”

Vernal bowed her head and left.

“So, what’s the truth?” Yang asked as she struggled to keep her wrist from shaking.

“You know, it’s better when it’s hot.” Raven took a long sip of her tea to emphasise her point.

“You know, you’re really obnoxious.” Weiss returned with a small jab, if only to annoy Raven.

“The truth is that truth is hard to come by. A story of victory for one person is a story of defeat for someone else. Surely your uncle has told you, Ruby and probably by now her friends plenty of stories.” Raven leant forward taking another sip from her tea

“Unlike you, he’s never given me reason to doubt him before.” Yang glared at Raven because of the off-hand remarks about her uncle and sister. She just sat there casually drinking tea like they were family, and this certainly didn’t sit well with Yang.

“That doesn’t mean those reasons don’t exist. You know, you and your teammates might as well be the poster children for the huntsman academies. Your motives vary, but you all enrolled to try and make the world a better place. It’s adorable.”

“It’s what Huntsmen and Huntresses do.”

“Not all of them, I’m sure you’ve seen some at Beacon. Some people are just in it for the money and the fame, but there’s even more that are just looking to grow stronger. Your Uncle Qrow and I didn’t attend Beacon to become Huntsmen, we did it to learn how to kill Huntsmen.”

Yang and Weiss exchanged glances as they gasped in shock, Raven held a smug smirk as she poured herself more tea.

“Daddy and Uncle left that part out, hm? Aside from the Grimm, Huntsmen were the only ones capable of ruining our raids and hunting us down. Our tribe needed a way to stop them. And Qrow and I were the perfect age. The entrance exams were child's play compared to what we'd already been through. We were good. So good, that we caught the attention of Beacon's very own headmaster, Professor Ozpin. Even after we were put on a team, I could tell he was keeping his eye on us. Back then, I thought it was because he knew, but it was Team STRQ he was interested in.”

Raven took another sip from her tea before standing up and turning her back to Yang and Weiss pretending to stare at the map behind her.

“At least he was interested in STRQ all you did was use them. You act like you care but you didn’t even come to Summer’s funeral!” Yang became increasingly angry, as she spoke she stood staring at the back of her mother’s head.

Raven turned to match Yang’s glare. “Just because you didn’t see me doesn’t mean I wasn’t there.”

Yang clenched her fists to contain her anger. “Just because you were hidden in the shadows doesn’t mean you were really there!”

Summer? Ruby’s mum?” Weiss asked timidly, she knew Ruby’s mother was a subject that one needed to tread carefully around Ruby and Yang, but she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to learn more about her.

“YOU left US, it’s because of you…”

“YOU DON’T GET TO PUT SUMMER ON ME! SHE TOOK THAT MISSION OF HER OWN CHOOSING!” Yang stepped back as Raven cut her off and her voice projected across the tent in such a way that made Vernal nervous outside.

Raven took a deep breath, she wouldn’t lose composure so easily in front of her daughter.

“How much do you know about Professor Ozpin? About his past?” Raven spoke in a balanced tone hiding the effect bringing up Summer had.

“What’s your point?” Yang was quick to dismiss Raven, the callous way she changed topic so easily only served to twist the knife that talking about Summer had created.

Weiss spoke slowly and calm feeling guilt about causing the fight. “He was… a prodigy. One of the youngest headmasters to be appointed to a school.”

“Because that’s how he planned it. Because the man you know as Ozpin designed those schools and has followers inside every academy on Remnant that are loyal to him and no one else.” Raven was surprisingly thankful for Weiss’ presence since she was clearly less visually emotional than Yang.

“That doesn't make any sense! Why would someone even do that?”

“Because old man Oz has a great and terrible secret. One that could spread fear across the world. One that he eventually entrusted to our team, and once I knew, there was no going back. I needed to know more, but with every new discovery I made, the more horrifying the world became.”

“Okay, then tell us. What's the big secret? What's so crazy that the rest of us don't know?”

“The Creatures of Grimm... have a master named Salem. She can't be stopped, she can't be reasoned with, and she will not rest until humanity crumbles at her feet.”

 As she speaks, Weiss and Yang's eyes widen more and more. Silence slowly settled in the tent.

Weiss asked the question that both Yang and she were thinking. “What?"

“You know, you two haven't even touched your tea.”

Raven takes another sip from her teacup, while Yang stood there staring her mother up and down as she took her sip.

“Why should we believe any of this?”

“Now you're catching on. So far, you've done nothing but accept what others tell you, but you need to question everything.”

The two stare at each other face to face, before Raven turns around.

“Otherwise you'll end up just as blind as Qrow and your fool of a father.”

A shot from Ember Celica rang out as the table disintegrated. Raven sighed as her now empty teacup clattered across the floor, stopping when it hits the heel of her boot. She looked toward Yang, faintly smiling. Yang's eyes turned red.

“Don't you DARE talk about my family like that!” Yang’s shouting almost rivalled her mother’s but lacked the projection necessary as unlike Raven’s it was clouded with emotion.

While Yang spoke, Weiss stared up at her wide-eyed and flinched when she raised her voice. She spun around as she heard a weapon being drawn behind Yang.

“You need to calm down.” Vernal spoke calmly.

Weiss stood and reached out for Yang’s hand, she spoke pleadingly. “Yang, please.”

“Listen to your friend, Yang. Your teammates never let you down before.”

“You don't know the first thing about my teammates! About me! You were never there! You LEFT US!!”

“I know more than you realize. Not just about you, and not just what I've been told, but things I've seen with my own eyes. I know the Grimm have a leader, I know people who can come back from the dead, I know that magic is real, and I can prove it.”

Weiss stands up, while Raven continues addressing her daughter.

“You said Tai told you all about my Semblance.”

Vernal lowers her weapon while Raven heads toward the back exit of her tent.

“Well, I doubt he ever told you what Oz did to my brother and me.”

Raven exits her tent. Yang and Weiss exchange confused looks.

“Go see for yourself.” Vernal spoke smugly with a shit-eating grin.

Vernal left through the front giving the 2 their continued privacy as Raven had already left. Yang and Weiss followed her advice and exited the tent through the back exit that Raven left through. As they made their way into the opening both were surprised to see no one there.

“Mom?” Yang asked confused.

“Yang are you okay?”

“I'll be fine once we can get her to take us to Ruby.” Yang shrugged off the question as she increasingly wanted to spend as little time within the bandit camp.

Weiss conceded while Yang continued to look around.

“It's okay if... you're not okay.” Weiss spoke again hoping she could get Yang to open up.

“You didn't believe what she said, right?” Yang again ignored Weiss’ question, opting instead to change the topic.

“I... of course not. Well, not all of it. It was crazy. We have Dust, Semblances. But, I mean, there's no such thing as magic.”

Hearing a bird caw, they both turned to look towards it ending their conversation. They watch it fly in front of them.

“A raven? Weiss’ confusion was clear in her voice, it was far to coincidental for a Raven to just happen to be flying over.

“I've... seen that bird before.”

“Maybe it belongs to your mom?”

The two continue to watch the raven fly through sky. It descends, flying and weaving between the trees, before shapeshifting into Raven. Raven lands back on the ground on her feet, while Yang and Weiss step back slightly with shocked expressions.

Yang gasped unable to understand what she saw. “How... did you do that?”

“Well, I could explain it to you...” Raven spoke as she turned then drawing her sword, slashing behind her, she created a portal with her Semblance. “…or you could ask your uncle.”

“You're letting us go?”

“I'm giving you a choice. Stay here, with me, and I'll answer all your questions and more. We can have a fresh start. Or you can go back to Qrow and join Ozpin's impossible war against Salem and meet the same fate as so many others. But can you really go back to trusting someone that's kept so much from you?”

Weiss reacted timidly, as Yang continued to glare at her mother. To Yang it seemed that Raven had failed to listen to anything she said about family.

“All I care about is making sure my sister is safe.” Yang spoke firmly hoping she would be able to break through to Raven.

Raven sighed in frustration shaking her head.

Yang and Weiss retrieved Bumblebee as they slowly made their way towards the portal Yang stopped as Raven turned to speak to her.

“Yang. If you side with your uncle, I may not be as kind the next time we meet.”

Weiss rolled her eyes as Yang shrugged.

“You weren't kind this time either.”

Yang and Weiss proceeded through the portal on Bumblebee. The portal faded away as Raven looked down, her face softened. She spoke softly.

“I know.”

Mistral…

Qrow is leaning against a railing overlooking Mistral a short walk from the house the team has made their base, Qrow’s head is hanging as he sighs in both confusion and disappointment after failing to find let alone recruit any local huntsman. Suddenly, behind him the wind picked up as the tell-tale sound from one of Raven’s portals hit his ears, Qrow turned around.

“Raven?” He said full of confusion.

As the portal finished forming the noise gave way to the faint sounds of a motorcycle.

“Oh.”

Team house…

Nora was cutting vegetables and Neo and Ren were cooking while Jaune set the table.

“How many people do you think he will bring? I mean this is a lot of food.” Nora’s speech was slightly mumbled as she ate the small pieces of vegetables she was cutting.

“Does it matter? We could use all the help we can get.” Jaune looked to Nora as he spoke.

“I’m back.” Qrow’s voice was accompanied by the confirming sound of the front door closing.

Jaune ran over to pick up a tray full of cups of tea alongside some milk and sugar. He spoke as he moved from the kitchen to the living room focusing on tray hoping to avoid spilling any.

“So, we didn’t know how many were coming, so we just…” Jaune was cut off by his surprise as he looked up from the tray instead of seeing strangers his eyes landed on Weiss and Yang, his disbelief was so great he dropped the tray leading it to shatter across the floor. He walked slowly towards Yang unsure whether she was really here.

“Yang?” He spoke with a strain in an attempt to stop his voice from cracking.

In response Yang suddenly stepped forward giving Jaune a deep hug.

“Hey there vomit boy.”

Jaune laughed as he pulled out of the hug.

“What are you doing here? I thought you wanted to stay in Patch?”

Before Yang could respond the rest of team NJNR made their way into the room following the sound of smashing, as Yang scanned across them she became increasingly worried so much so that she took a step back.

“Hey, where is Ruby? Her voice was full of concern.

Weiss took a cautious step forward reaching her right hand out for Yang’s left, she was sure Yang’s mind was running through all the same scenarios as hers. Wiess noticed Jaune looked nervous, even more so than normal for him, he’s fidgeting with his hands and refused to meet her eyes.

“she’s… Ruby… she’s working with Cinder now.” Jaune panicked unsure how to tell them and by accident blurted it out.

Weiss froze both physically and mentally. There was a ringing in her ears that drowned out clearly heated discussion going on in front of her, the only sign she had that reminded her where she was, Yang’s hand anchored her to the room but she could feel that it was shaking but she couldn’t tell if that was because of her or Yang except that anchor was lost when Yang took a step forward causing her to lose her grasp of Yang’s hand, she retracted her hand onto her chest holding it within her other hand as it still shook. Weiss refused to believe this, this was Ruby she wouldn’t just work with the people who killed Penny and Pyrrha, while she struggled to process this Weiss could pick out parts of the surrounding conversation until one word struck her to the core.

“Ruby…Fight…Stabbed…Neo…She’s”

“Traitor.”

Weiss spun around as she locked eyes upon the person who spoke, her eyes landing some short boy with ruffled brown hair dressed as if he was just picked up off the streets. _HOW DARE HE_. Without thinking Weiss formed a gravity glyph slamming him into the wall, whoever it was became surprised as he saw a clearly furious Weiss Schnee walking towards him. Instinctively Weiss grabbed Myrtenaster bringing it behind her before slamming it forward towards her target, Weiss could feel a haze surrounding her mind as her rapier landed the haze was broken by a single voice.

“WEISS!” Yang shouted in shock witnessing what her teammate was doing.

Oscar slowly opened his eyes blocked by Weiss’ closed ones as she rested her forehead on his, the tight grip coming from his hair led him to guess she had stabbed just above his head trapping some stands in the process.

Weiss drew in a shaky breath keeping her eyes closed as she kept her forehead against his.

“You don’t even KNOW her.” Weiss spoke slowly and softly as she struggled to stop her voice from cracking.

“Ruby… She’s… She’s cookies and cream personified, she idealizes fairy tales defeating the bad guy and saving the damsel and you have the NERVE to call her a traitor.” As Weiss spoke she would push her head forward slightly forcing Oscar to tap his head against the wall to emphasise her points. As she finished she straightened up slowly turning her head looking between her friends and this child as she continued.

“This is Ruby we’re talking about. The girl who made a binder full of summer activities for us to try and have fun. The girl who’s first thought is always about those around her before herself, who didn’t care what I did only focusing on becoming my friend. She didn’t care about Blake being a Faunus or how badly I treated her, all she cares about is her friends.” As Weiss finished her eyes landed back on Oscar staring into his eyes. Her voice became barely more than a whisper “and you have the nerve to call her a traitor.”

Weiss’ eyes opened in shock at the realization of what she had just done, removing the gravity glyph Oscar dropped to his knees with an audible thud as she spun around looking at the shocked and surprised faces of her friends her breathing became unstable and quick as she came back to Oscar she saw her rapier still embedded in the wall with some strands of his hair.

“I… I’m… I…” Weiss fumbled her words unsure on what to say or do. “Need to be alone.”

Weiss ran down the closest hallway away from the concerned voices of her friends until she came to the end of the hall she chose a door at random rushing into it and slamming her body against the door as she collapsed hugging her knees as the tears she fought so hard to hold up broke through like water through a dam.

As Weiss’ tears slowly stopped, turning into a sniffle she felt drained both physically and emotionally, she gave herself a weak laugh thinking over the day she’s had. _At least it can’t get any worse._

“so… I’m a bad guy now.” Weiss looked up to the origin of the voice and she saw Ruby rolling around giggling on the bed.

“This isn’t right, it shouldn’t have happened this way.” Weiss’ eyes were locked on the imaginative Ruby who jumped up off the bed and skipped in front of her and continued talking while ignoring what Weiss had said.

“Tell me, do you think that since I’m a villain now do I dress the part?” Ruby spoke with air quotes over villain and as she straightened her finger her outfit burnt away leaving an identical red dress that Cinder wore right down to the ankle bracelet and glass heels, she gave a little spin and a small stumble as she struggled in the heels.

“Damn lady stilts, I don’t think I can pull off the confidence of Cinder, maybe Emerald would be better, more low key and definitely more pockets.” As Ruby flicked her wrist the dress gave way to Emerald’s green, white and brown outfit and instead of acknowledging the change Ruby sighed looking down at her feet.

“Damn heels again, is it just me that doesn’t like those damn things? Oh wait, I know someone perfect.” Ruby span her index finger and a cane appeared spinning around it as a white suit spread from her hand along the rest of her body ending in black trousers, a small grey scarf around her neck and a black bowler hat sat atop her head. She got down onto her knees resting her head on Weiss’ knees looking into her eyes.

“This is much better, no heels and every time Neo sees me all she will be able to think about is how Roman died, a suitable reminder and punishment since she is partly to blame don’t you think?”

Weiss opened her mouth to respond but was again cut off but instead of by Ruby it was from a soft and gentle knock from the other side of the door, in response Weiss curled up again wanting to block out the world.

“Weiss… is it okay if I come in?” Yang’s voice carried through the door softly almost as if she knew Weiss was on the other side. Ruby stood up away from Weiss’ knees and did a cartwheel, during which Roman’s suit shimmered away back into her signature black and red outfit, gracefully she landed on the bed and gave a raised eyebrow towards Weiss as she leant forward resting her head the back of her hands.

“Well. Are you going to answer her? It would be rude not to.”


	15. Chapter 15

Mistral…

“Weiss… is it okay if I come in?” Yang’s voice carried through the door softly almost as if she knew Weiss was on the other side. Ruby stood up away from Weiss’ knees and did a cartwheel, during which Roman’s suit shimmered away back into her signature black and red outfit, gracefully she landed on the bed and gave a raised eyebrow towards Weiss as she leant forward resting her head on the back of her hands.

“Well. Are you going to answer her? It would be rude not to.”

Weiss shuffled forwards slightly away from the door, staying sat on the floor she reached up and grabbed the door handle twisting and opening the door just enough for Yang to squeeze through. Weiss couldn’t look up at Yang and quickly brought her hand back around her legs. Yang slowly closed the door behind her before sitting down next to Weiss.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Yang lent slightly against Weiss as she spoke hoping to offer some support that would get her to open up. Wiess remained curled up against her legs hiding her head behind them hoping that Yang could see how close her tears threatened to break free.

Slowly a dangerous silence threatened to solidify between the two as Weiss still couldn’t bring herself to answer risking that her voice would betray her attempts to conceal her emotions. One thought kept running through Weiss’ mind becoming more frequent and loud until she shattered the silence with a statement that shook Yang in both what she said and how she said it.

“I’m a terrible partner!” Weiss spoke quickly hoping that forcing the words out faster would somehow hide her pain. Yang recoiled slightly before placing a supportive arm around Weiss.

“That’s not true.”

“YES IT IS!” as she spoke her head shot up looking to her right she stared right into Yang’s eyes as she could feel some tears force their way down her cheeks. “I caused this, if I had followed Ruby up that tower I could’ve stopped her from being taken… and to top it all off I ran away the one time she needed me.” Weiss quickly returned to hiding back into herself.

Yang was unsure how to react, she quickly composed herself seeing Weiss be this emotional clearly demonstrated how badly this was affecting her, thankfully she was used to playing the role of big sister.

“You know that isn’t true, we don’t know what happened up there in the tower you could’ve ended up like Pyrrha; fighting a battle she couldn’t win, and Ruby would be in an even darker place than she is now… Weiss look at me.” Slowly Weiss raised her head to meet Yang. “and the one thing you didn’t do is run away, your dad came and took you away.”

“But I did, I didn’t try to stop him I just let him take me, he just acted as a convenient excuse to leave. To run away.”

“You know it’s funny, at first I was grateful for him taking me away at least at home I could feel safe but even that didn’t last long. I suppose being away for so long made me forget how bad it was, all the scheming plans and facades I hated it, it wasn’t home. In some ways it never was, team RWBY became my home. You know growing up everything was always black and white, nothing of mine was celebrated, the only difference between my birthday and any other day was a slightly bigger dinner and a small acknowledgement from father.” Weiss slowly turned her head until she was looking into the eyes of Ruby who was still on the end of the bed. “But then on the first day of Beacon this red stumbling dolt crashed into me who celebrated everything, our first week as partners, our first month, the first time our team trained together, when we won our first tournament match. It was overbearing at times, but she didn’t care she made it her sole goal to become my friend no matter what and I promised her I would be the greatest partner ever.”

Yang gave Weiss a comforting hug which she reciprocated pulling into Yang’s embrace, the two remained in silence for a few minutes both unwilling to break the moment. Yang shuffled slightly keeping the embrace but signalling to Weiss she was about to talk.

“To be the greatest partner for my sister, all that matters is you continue to have her back like you did at the Battle of Beacon. And I know that we’ll get the chance to help her soon whether she wants it or not.”

“How do you know? That we’ll get the chance to help her I mean.”

Yang smiled, and she gave a small laugh, she pulled Weiss out from her embrace keeping her hands-on Weiss’ shoulders and she looked into her eyes with a grin. “When has Ruby ever been able to stay away from trouble.”

Raven’s camp…

At the camp's entrance, a few bandits stand guard, talking amongst themselves. Suddenly, a voice calls out from the forest, drawing their attention.

Mercury shouted, “Hey ugly!” Mercury and Emerald walked out from the forest toward the camp's entrance. With the bandit’s attention Emerald spoke, “Is Raven Branwen home?”

One of the bandits covered in bruises sighed heavily. “Ya know, I've had a real bad week. So, I think I'm gonna take it out on you—" he stopped mid-sentence as he noticed Cinder, Ruby and Watts emerge from the forest walking into the clearing behind the other two

Mercury turned his head slightly looking towards Cinder, with a small grin on his face. “Doesn't look like he wants to cooperate, Boss.”

Cinder chuckled in such a way that caused the bandits to look amongst themselves with worry “Then make him.”

“I was hoping you'd say that.”

Emerald walked forward, Ruby went to follow her but was stopped by the sudden outstretched arm of cinder. “Not yet, let them have their fun for now.” Ruby gave a slight nod and stepped back, putting Crescent Rose on her back.

The bandits prepared to hold their ground, suddenly Emerald unsheathed her weapons, twirling them before they transform into their sickle forms before lunging forward at the outclassed bandits.

Raven’s tent…

Raven was sat alone at her table sharpening her sword until Vernal burst through the entrance, Raven looked at the girl who looked clearly worried, Vernal took a quick breath to compose herself.

“Raven we have a problem.”

“What is it?” Raven spoke as she stood sheathing her sword.

“Salem’s found us.”

Raven’s eyes widened in shock, before quickly returning back to her neutral glare.

“Salem… okay.” She turned towards the wall behind her looking at a map of Anima.

Vernal took a cautious step forward. “Four of her followers are waiting outside to speak with you.”

“Right.” Raven turned back to Vernal “We planned for this… Bring me my helmet.”

As Raven made her way out of her tent into the clearing she scanned the figures in front of her and was grateful that she was wearing her mask as it covered the shocked expression caused by seeing Ruby stood beside Cinder, turning her gaze away from Ruby she turned towards her bandits that have gathered behind the group.

“I don’t recall inviting so many guests into our home. Either I’m losing my memory or you’ve all lost your spines!”

“Don’t be too upset with them, Raven. Your men simply recognized the power of a maiden when they see it.” To emphasis her point Cinder produced a small flame from her right hand as her eyes glowed.

Raven scoffed and Cinder before turning back to her bandits. “Leave us. Pack your things, then break down camp. We’re moving.” The bandits followed their leaders’ orders and dispersed.

Watts took a step forward to address Raven. “Little late to run and hide…” For Ruby the conversation quickly became muffled as her gaze looked straight through Raven’s mask almost as if she didn’t see her. Ruby’s stoic appearance failed to betray any of her internal emotions as she battled over the shock of seeing Yang’s mother in person, Emerald gave Ruby a concerned glance as she remained their unmoving as Watts, Cinder and Raven continued to talk. Ruby was pulled out of her stupor by Raven suddenly removing her mask and handing to the tanned girl with the tattoo next to her, the surprise of seeing Raven’s face pulled her back into the conversation.

“Agreements like these are built on trust. And forgive me for saying, but I don’t trust a single one of you. you’re going to need to give me more.”

“you are in a poor position to negotiate.” Watts was quick to counter Raven’s attempts to gain from their deal.

“I want my brother dead.” Raven answered back quickly.

“Qrow?” Cinder was surprised by the apparent ruthlessness by Raven.

The mention of Qrow gave Ruby a headache as her mind ran a mile an hour as she tried to catch up and digest the parts of the conversation she had missed without displaying her confusion until Emerald stepped forward and spoke causing her hurt to stop for a moment.

“But it’s not just him. He has the students with him.”

Ruby realized she would have to fight them again and her fluttered in anticipation, she was excited for the chance to fight her friends again and return the favour they showed her when they killed the Nuckelavee causing her to fail her mission and being punished by Salem.

Cinder took a step forward holding out her hand for Raven. “Then we have a deal?” Suddenly Watts grabbed her hand. “Wait. Don’t think I don’t see what you’re after, if this falls to pieces I will not be taking the blame.” Cinder glared and him in annoyance and Ruby subconsciously gripped Crescent Rose in case it escalated, Cinder merely used her maiden powers to burn Watt’s hand, causing him to growl in annoyance and remove his grip.

“Fly back home and tinker with your machines and tell Salem she’ll get what she wants… and more.” Cinder held her hand out again for Raven who stood still for a moment glaring at Cinder’s offered hand until she returned it with her own sealing the deal with a shake. As she released her grip Raven look past Cinder to Ruby. “And what about you? killing Qrow won’t be easy and your friends will be with him, Yang to.” Everyone else looked towards Ruby, they were all curious how she would react. Ruby remained motionless for a brief moment until a small malicious grin appeared on her face as she looked Raven into her eyes which pierced into her core, she spoke with slight excitement.

“I guess we’ll both be disappointing our siblings.”

… On a ship near Mistral.

Ilia slowly opened the door to room she saw Blake go into after he knocks went unanswered. Blake was curled up on a sofa alone at the end of a room, she was staring at something in her hand, but Ilia couldn’t see what it was because Blade’s body was blocking her view, Blake seemed so deep in thought that she failed to notice Ilia’s presence. Ilia walked up slowly behind Blake as she approached she could see that Blake was staring at a picture of herself and three other young girls, one was yellow and had her arm around Blake while the other two were stood aside Yang smiling, one was red and the other was white.

“Hey.” Ilia spoke quietly hoping to not cause Blake to jump, in reaction Blake visibly stiffened clearly surprised by Ilia’s presence, Ilia sat next to Blake and lent forwards slightly. “So, who are your new friends?” she asked playfully. Blake responded with a small smile but otherwise she remained silent for a moment, she took a small breath before talking.

“You know it’s funny, don’t you recognise her?” Blake moved her left hand in front of the picture using one finger to point towards the girl in white. Ilia frowned as she looked at her but after failing to recall who it was she shook her head slightly before turning to Blake. “I have no idea.”

Blake’s small smile grew as she turned her head looking back at the picture. “That is none other than the heiress herself Weiss Schnee.” Ilia visibly recoiled in shock towards the other side of the sofa. “THE WEISS SCHNEE! SHE was on your team?” Blake’s smile remained as she reminisced. “Back before she knew I was a Faunus I was terrified about how she would react.”

“I bet that went poorly” Ilia spoke in a matter of fact tone.

“Actually, one of the few things about Weiss is she’s always surprising. It was an accident when she found out I was a Faunus and typical me I ran away. In the end after hours of searching my team found me, Weiss’ was glad I was safe, she didn’t care I was a Faunus or even that I used to be in the White Fang, she was more hurt about me lying.”

Ilia looked at Blake with surprise, Blake failed to notice Ilia’s expression as she remained looking at the picture. “Wow… A Schnee that isn’t a total ass, I didn’t think they existed.” This caused Blake to look away from the phot to Ilia, giving Ilia another small knowing smile.

“I’ve found most people break my expectations.”

 


	16. Chapter 16

Mistral…

Qrow had gathered the group of students in the main room of the house to address them after he had received a call from headmaster of Haven, both he and Ozpin found it suspicious given how their first meeting went.

Neo was sat between Jaune and Nora with Ren standing next to Nora with Yang and Weiss next to Jaune, as everyone took in the news Neo typed out response on her scroll and displayed it outwards.

_It could be a trap, Lionheart didn’t sound genuine about his offer to help earlier._

“Agreed, make sure you all have a full meal before we leave and stock up on dust and ammo we’re leaving tonight and even if it isn’t a trap there’s something here that doesn’t sit right with me.”

As everyone left to prepare Jaune walked over to Qrow and Ozpin.

“Do you really think that the headmaster has betrayed us?” The way Jaune spoke was as if he couldn’t believe it and Ozpin was quick to calm his nerves.

“There are many possibilities, but we must prepare for the worst.” Jaune’s expression softened as he nodded in agreement.

Haven Academy…

A full moon illuminated the night sky over Haven. Qrow walked ahead of the group taking the lead as the rest followed dutifully behind him, as they entered Oscar stayed slightly behind Yang to obscure Lionheart’s view of him hopefully to make it harder for him to realize he’s Ozpin. As they walked through the large hall Lionheart stood atop a landing above them separated by a set of stairs that led down to them on either side, underneath him was a statue that was designed to appear to be holding up where he was standing. He looked nervous and ran a finger underneath his collar.

“Why hello. Thank you for… coming. There… seems to be more of you than last time.” He gave a nervous chuckle as he finished.

“You know what they say, the more the merrier. So, what’s going on with the council?” Qrow spoke with a slight annoyance, he didn’t like being beckoned nor the feeling he was being played.

Lionheart avoided the question as he glanced among the group. “Why… did you bring your weapons?”

Everyone looked among themselves with confusion as Qrow remained almost glaring at the headmaster.

“What? Leo. We’re Huntsmen, are you okay?” Qrow was surprised at the statement, the way Leo acted was as if his mind was somewhere else.

“Of course! Of course, sorry. Just haven’t had my evening coffee, you know how it is?

“Riiight. Look, it’s nice to see you, but we have work to do. Are we getting help from the council or not?

As the two spoke Yang had a nagging feeling that was filling her with dread, her eyes looked to the right as something from the corner of her view drew her attention. Perched atop the balcony railing was a small black bird.

“Mom?” Yang sounded both surprised and shocked.

Qrow reacted to Yang’s outburst by spinning around as he unholstered his weapon shooting a blast at the railing however the bird flew up toward the ceiling causing him to miss, just as quickly the bird flipped down behind Lionheart and transformed into Raven who stood behind him with her mask on, this earned her glares from Weiss, Yang and Qrow.

“Raven.” Weiss’ voice was full of venom.

Raven slowly took off her mask as she moved in front of Lionheart.

“You know, if you’re going to shoot me, then shoot me because that was insulting.”

Qrow kept his weapon drawn in front of him clearly ready for a fight. “What are you doing here?

Raven turned to start walking down one of the set of stairs as she spoke.

“I could ask you the same thing little brother. You’ve been scheming, planning to attack your own sister.” She said the last part feigning shock.

Qrow turned to Leo. “What have you done Leo?”

Before he could respond Raven answered for him. “Leo did what any sane person would in his position. He looked at all the cards in front of him, assessed the situation and made a choice. A choice it seems you all have too.”

Qrow growled as he failed to contain his anger. “You have the Spring Maiden!”

“I do.” Raven seemed unphased by the way in which Qrow spoke to her.

Qrow took a small step forward. “then make this right, hand her over and let’s work together, we can beat Salem!”

Raven looked at Qrow with disdain as she spoke, her voice full of annoyance.

“All that time spent spying for Ozpin and you still have no idea what you’re dealing with. There is NO beating Salem”.

“YOUR WRONG!” Yang shouted surprised by her own outburst, she walked next to Qrow and held out her hand. “We've done things that most people would call impossible, and I know the only reason we were able to do it is because we didn't do it alone! We had people to teach us, people to help us, we had each other. Help with us. At least I know we'll have a better chance if we try together. Please mom.”

Raven glared at her daughters held out hand as she responded in disgust. “You sound just like Summer.”

Suddenly, Raven drew her sword slashing next to her using her semblance to create a portal. A fireball is launched from the portal flying between Yang and Neo landing squarely in the wall behind them. As most of them turned to look at the now smouldering hole in the wall, Cinder steps out of the portal.

“Hm, I feel as though someone should’ve been there. Oh well, hello boys and girls.” As she spoke a small grin formed on her.

As she walked forward to stand beside Raven she is joined through the portal by Vernal, then Emerald and Mercury and after a brief second Ruby stepped out from the Portal standing between Cinder and Emerald.

“Ruby!” Yang shouted in shock as everyone reacted by taking a step backwards as their former teammate stepped out from the portal. If Ruby heard she gave no reaction as she had a neutral expression on her face and just gazed among her friends, as her eyes landed on Yang she stared straight into her sister’s wide-eyes in such a way that pierced straight into her soul. Mercury with his smug expression spoke in response.

“C’mon guys, is that any way to greet your old friends?

As Yang growled at him she was cut off as her anger fell of her face by her eyes looking at the collar Ruby was wearing as in the centre of it was Cinder’s symbol, as if she was some kind of property. This reignited the anger Yang felt followed by her eyes turning red and small flickers of flame falling of the end of her hair.

Qrow put an arm out in front of Yang as he spoke through gritted teeth, himself struggling with seeing Ruby again. “Now everybody, stay calm.”

Suddenly the doors behind that they entered through opened and slammed shut as Hazel turned around from the doors.

“The White Fang is prepping demolition and securing the school grounds. No one’s getting in… and no one’s getting out.

As everyone watched Hazel slowly approach them he stopped, turning their attention back to Cinder.

“So, this was all a trap?” Weiss looked at Cinder since every time she looked at Ruby she felt a surge of Ice that struck her to the core for abandoning her that night at Beacon.

“It appears so…”

“Raven, tell me… how long have you been with them? Qrow spoke as his determination to remain calm wavered.

Cinder answered in a mocking tone. “Aww, don’t take it personally, little bird, your sister was a recent addition. The lion on the other hand… entrance into the Vytal Festival was a real treat, Leonardo’s been sending Salem all sorts of information for a very, very long time. Isn’t that right, professor?”

Leo looked down at the ground in shame. “Stop it.”

Shock spread across Qrow’s face as he realized the implications. “It was you… you sit on the Mistral Council. You had information on EVERY Huntsman and Huntress in the Kingdom and you gave it all to her?”

“I couldn’t find any of them because you let her kill them!”

Leo just held the shamed expression he had, failing to respond to Qrow. Cinder continued her mocking of the group.

“Aw now, don’t beat yourself up about it.” As she spoke she wrapped one arm around Ruby and rested her head on Ruby’s shoulder. “I’m sure Ruby and Tyrian would’ve found them on their own eventually.” Using the arm wrapped around ruby she booped her nose slightly causing Ruby to recoil her head away from the hand and towards Cinder. “And you had such fun killing them didn’t you.”

Everyone except for Jaune took another step back at the revelation, as he slowly withdraws his weapon from his hip.

“What is wrong with you? How can you be so broken inside… to take so many lives, turn people against their family, and then come here and rub it in our faces like it’s something to be proud of!”

“Jaune…” Nora spoke full of worry as she could see tears staring to run from his eyes as he increasingly shook with rage.

“ALL WITH THAT DAMN SMILE ON YOUR FACE!”

Rest of the group reacted by drawing their weapons, followed by ruby who fully extended her scythe and stood slightly in front of Cinder defensively.

Qrow tried to keep control of the increasingly spirally situation. “Everybody, stay calm!”

Jaune ignored Qrow’s attempt to defuse the situation “I’m gonna make you pay for what you have done, do you hear me?!”

“Kid just calm down okay!” Qrow’s attempt was again ignored by Jaune.

“Well? **SAY SOMETHING**!”

After a short pause Cinder placed her hand on Ruby’s shoulder causing the girl to relax slightly and step back behind Cinder but leaving her scythe ready.

“who are you again?”

At this Jaune transformed his sword into its two-handle form rushing forward and swiping at Cinder who summons a flaming scimitar easily blocking Jaune’s attack.

“Jaune!” Yang rushed forward quick to try and help her friend however rose petals appeared in front of her as Ruby dash clockwise across Yang and using he scythe swiped Yang’s feet from out under her causing her to land on her back, hitting her head on the floor. As Yang recovered she shook her head and opened her eyes staring up at Ruby towering over her with a small grin.

“come on sis, we have so much catching up to do!”

Off to the side of the siblings the Branwen twins were locked in their own fight, Raven’s attack was blocked by Qrow’s scythe as she blocked his attempts to help her daughter, they both struggled to overpower the other as their weapons remained crashing into each other.

“Running away was one thing, but this Raven… you’ve crossed the line!”

“Sorry, brother. Sometimes family disappoints you like that.”

“We’re not family anymore.”

“Were we ever?”

“I thought so, but I guess I was wrong!”

As Raven jumped back from Qrow’s attack she landed next to Vernal.

“I’ll handle my brother, you deal with the Schnee.”

Vernal drew her sword as she held a small smirk across her face. “with pleasure.”

Weiss easily deflects Vernal’s first attack, taking some steps back she held and en garde stance with Myrtenaster held out firmly.

“I’m more than a name.”

Vernal chuckled.

“Prove it.”

Weiss formed a glyph below her, projecting herself forward she thought the Spring Maiden. As Weiss bounced around deflecting Vernal’s boomerang like weapons Oscar slipped past them unnoticed, making his way up the stairs he was noticed by Leo.

“Young man, I don’t know who you are or what you are doing, but for your sake, I suggest you leave. Now.”

Oscar remained still as he defiantly stared down Leo, who took a cautious step backwards and the new threat.

“I’m warning you!” Leo held out his wrist extending the weapon mounted on it as Oscar responded by drawing his cane from behind him.

Leo’s eye’s widened in surprise. “Ozpin?”

“Not quite.” Oscar jumped forward forcing Lionheart on the defensive.

“Not quite? You’re not really Ozpin right now are you boy? If I deliver you to Salem she’ll have no choice but to be pleased with me, I can finally be free!”

Oscar raised hi weapon defensively ready to block Lionhearts next attack. Unsure he asked Ozpin mentally.

“What do I do?”

_“Fight”_ He responded dryly.

Suddenly a large beam cut across the room that destroyed the ice wall formed by Weiss, she flew pass Neo who was busy fighting Emerald and Mercury.

Mercury still had a grin on his face. “So, I take this as your resignation then?” Neo responded by shattering the clone of herself she left with a blast from Roman’s cane that landed squarely in Mercury’s chest, as he stood back up wiping the pieces off his shirt he turned to Emerald.

“you gonna help or just watch?”

“Yea yea, since you asked so nicely.” Smiling, Emerald launched her chain at Neo which crashed into her shattering an illusion of herself she left behind.

Growling in annoyance Mercury turned to Em. “Can’t you make her hallucinate Roman or something?”

Emerald looked around the fighting trying to find where Neo went. “It’s kinda difficult if I can’t tell when she is actually in front of me.”

“Perfect.” Mercury huffed in annoyance.

Meanwhile, Jaune is knocked to the ground by Cinder’s attacks who continued her taunting at the boy.

Chuckling she spoke as Jaune got back up “I’m starting to remember you, you’re the dense one that can’t tell when he’s out of his league.”

Cinder formed another scimitar blocking Jaune’s lunging attack and locking weapons with him, their attention was drawn to a pained scream from Weiss, as they looked in her direction Weiss’ aura shimmered signalling that hers was now depleted.

“Are you going to let her die too?”

“stop messing with me!” Jaune yelled as he struggled to contain his tears.

Cinder merely chuckled with a small smile. “If that’s what you want.”

Cinder ignited her scimitar engulfing it fully in flames cause Jaune to jump back to prevent himself from being burnt. Taking her weapon in both hands she slashed horizontally in front of her causing a line of flames to extend out from her weapon, Jaune braced himself for the impact until he felt somebody press their back to him, the line of flames crashed into Jaune shattering him into glass leading to a surprised look from Cinder.

“What!”

“HEY UGLY!” Cinder turned to her right as Jaune was launched off of Neo sword held out in front of him like he was propelled like a missile towards her, Cinder had barely enough time to reach only slightly moving to the side out of Jaune ways, he did however manage to clip Cinder’s mask that concealed the left side of her face, as Jaune failed to strike her he tumbled slightly fumbling the landing and falling over. Seeing the chipped piece of her mask land on the floor Cinder became enrages, the fire erupting from her eye signalling the activation of her Maiden powers. She walked over to Jaune before he could get back up, placing her heel on his chest she held him down.

“Did you think you actually had a chance against me? YOU!” Jaune struggled underneath attempting in vain to reach his weapon that was ever so slightly out of reach. “You’re nothing but a failure with a death wish.”

Jaune grabbed onto Cinder’s leg keeping her pinned to his chest. “If I die buying them time, then it’s worth it, they’re the ones that matter.”

“You think so?” Cinder looked away from Jaune towards his friends, she watched each of them fighting. The Branwen twins, Ruby and Yang, Hazel fighting Nora and Ren until she notices Weiss getting knocked back from her Rapier as she struggled without her aura, an evil smile formed on Cinder as Jaune realized where she was looking.

“NO!” He attempted to keep Cinder on top of him, but she kept applying pressure on her foot until Jaune’s grip relented out of pain leaving a small dent in his armour, he was forced to watch as Cinder took some steps towards Weiss a spear forming in her hand.

Jaune heard himself scream causing everyone to freeze as Cinder throws the spear, Yang and Ruby stop as it flies between them both following it as it impales into Weiss through her abdomen eliciting a shocking grasp from her as she collapsed motionless as the spear disintegrates.

For Ruby everything froze, within her mind became filled with screaming, hundreds of voices all yelling at once as she stood as frozen as everyone else, she watched Weiss’ body collapse over as all the voices merged into a singular swarm shouting one word in her head on repeat.

_WEISS!_


	17. Chapter 17

Jaune rushed over to Weiss’ collapsed body, focusing so much on what he caused he barged past Ruby pushing her to the side causing Yang to internally recoil as she feared Ruby would react by attacking Jaune but instead she just stood there her back slightly twisted from Jaune pushing her but otherwise still ready to attack Yang with her weapon drawn, except her eyes were locked on Weiss the only movement she showed was her eyes blinking. Unknown to either of them Ruby’s mind was overwhelmed, so many voices shouting at her simultaneously like a hive mind.

_WEISS!_

Atop the staircase stood Oscar looking down amongst the mess his eyes moved between Weiss’ unconscious body, the paused fight between Yang and Ruby and the look of shock among his friends faces. Becoming angered Oscar raised his cane smacking Leo in the chest, causing him to fall down the stairs and into Hazel who remained unfazed at having a body crash into him. Hazel turned slowly picking up Leo by his collar with a low growl as Oscar ran passed over to Weiss and Jaune with Nora joining him.

Looking down at Weiss’ injury Oscar spoke with worry while in his periphery he saw Hazel drop Leo and look in his direction.

“This is bad, really bad! Jaune what can we--”

“ **OZPIN!** You thought you could hide from ME!”

Looking up Oscar saw the infuriated and enraged Hazel ripping his coat off and grab a pair of lightning dust crystals from pouches on his legs.

“You’ll pay for what you did! You’ll die over and over again!”

Hazel stabbed the lightning dust into his arms causing his veins to turn yellow and pop out from his skin as lightning flowed off his body and as his eyes glowed yellow he let out a shaking roar that intimidated those fighting him.

“Do- do we fight?”

“No, run!” Ozpin snapped back in an afraid tone causing Oscar to slowly back away and shakingly hold up his cane.

As Hazel leaps forward charging towards Oscar he is blocked by Qrow who jumped in between the raging Hazel and Oscar, as Qrow transformed his weapon into its scythe form to fight Hazel, Vernal and Raven had joined Cinder standing at her sides. Raven had dragged Leo with her by his neck dropping him in front of Cinder.

Cinder spoke angrily. “Open the path to the vault would you Leo!”

As Leo stood up he approached the statue in that stood between the stairs and under the landing, taking out his pocket watch he places it in a small hole on the statue. This caused the hands on the watch to spin increasingly fast allowing the statue to lower itself revealing a lift down into the vault. Raven, Vernal and Cinder stood atop the lift Cinder turned back to the chaos in the room with a small grin and opened her mouth slightly to speak.

“Oh Ruby.”

Hearing her name cut through all the voices in her head, before she turned to even see who called her she activated her semblance instantly at the sound of the voice leaving Yang with a small floating falling collection of rose petals she appeared in front of Cinder.

“Kill them all, though make sure they leave Ozpin alive, Salem will be pleased with him. This won’t take long.”

As Yang overheard what was said her eyes flicked between her sister, Raven and Weiss as her team and family threatened to collapse around her. Ruby turned looking at Yang with a small smile as she vanished into more rose petals before slamming scythe first into Nora’s hammer blocking Ruby’s path towards Weiss and Jaune. As the two remained locked with Nora being slowly pushed back by Ruby’s force she looked over to Yang.

“Stop them! We’ve got your team covered!”

Yang remained for a moment before following Nora’s advice, before she could reach them however she gets kicked to the ground by Mercury who is joined by Emerald.”

“You wanna get to them? You’re going to have to get through all of us.”

As Emerald finished she activated her semblance creating multiple copies of Mercury which surrounded Yang.

On the other side of the room and Nora fought to hold of Ruby Jaune uses his hands to apply pressure to Weiss’ wound as Ren checked her wrist for a pulse.

Ren shook his head sadly as he looked up at Jaune. “This is bad.”

Jaune’s eyes widened in horror. “No, no, no not again! C’mon Weiss please!”

“Jaune she’s hardly breathing. I- I don’t know what we can do.”

As they both looked down at Weiss struggling to breath Jaune’s voice was on the verge of breaking.

“No, it wasn’t supposed to be like this! Please! We can’t lose anyone else”

As Jaune closes his eyes a faint shimmering sound can be heard as white aura starts to envelope Weiss’ body. Weiss’ gasps for air pulled Jaune’s eyes open looking between Weiss and Ren.

“What’s happening.”

Just as Ren is about to answer him they are cut off by the sound of an explosion in front of them. Nora had fired point blank between her and Ruby in an attempt to gain some distance between them however now she was flung a few metres back towards them as Ruby used her semblance to launch herself up into the air bringing her scythe down into Nora who was reaching for her weapon. The two huntsmen in training froze as they watched Ruby’s scythe land dead centre into Nora’s back causing her body to shatter into shards of glass as a noise pulled their attention behind them their heads span around landing on a smiling Neo who had Nora’s arm around her neck and her hammer in her free hand. Jaune and Ren smiled in relief as Nora stood up as Neo gave her back her weapon pulling Roman’s cane from behind her.

Ruby growled in annoyance as her attention was now locked onto Neo and Nora forgetting about Weiss, Ren and Jaune she lunged over them combat rolling forward she fired Crescent Rose into the ground propelling herself upwards before firing a fire dust round at Neo and Nora, as the bullet landed between them it burst into flames and a small explosion occurred again shattering another illusion left by Neo, as she landed onto the ground Neo and Nora were standing in front of her ready.

Jaune turned back to Ren as Neo and Nora fought to protect them.

“Yang and Oscar need help, they can cover me.” He nodded over towards his teammates as Ren reloaded StormFlower as he stood in agreement.

Ren ran behind Emerald and Mercury as he pointed one weapon at them he flung the other like a boomerang hitting Emerald in the back of the head as a distraction while unleashing a torrent of rounds with the other at the pair, as Emerald recoiled from the injury she was forced to drop her focus and her semblance causing the copies of Mercury to disappear.

As Ren caught his thrown weapon he spun around pointing both at Emerald and unleashing another round of bullets her way preventing her from using her semblance as he did, he shouted at Yang.

“Yang! Go!” he nodded his head towards the direction of the vault entrance. Yang ran forwards using the distraction of Ren’s weapons to barge Mercury aside as Emerald screaming in frustration lunged for Yang, but she fell short falling to the ground, Mercury used his prosthetic feet to launch himself towards Yang by firing into the ground as he landed next to her he rolled forward reaching out he grabbed onto her prosthetic arm. Yang’s eyes turned red for a short time as she turned to punch Mercury but deciding instead to focus on the objective in front of her she detaches her arm and continues forward causing Mercury to fall forwards losing his balance, Yang jumps down the hole leading into the vault, before either of them can follow her however Ren stands between them and the vault entrance.

As Neo continued fighting Ruby she nodded her confirmation towards Nora signalling she would be able to hold off Ruby on her own for now enabling her to run over to Jaune and check on Weiss.

“You guys doing okay?”

“I- I think so. She’s coming to. I just wish this would go faster.”

Nora gave a small laugh. “How about you don’t complain and just be thankful you unlocked your semblance when you did.”

Jaune looked up at Nora in confusion. “My semblance?”

Nora rolled her eyes. “Duh, how else do you think you are healing her, dummy?”

Jaune stares back at her in disbelief before looking down at Weiss as he spoke with renewed confidence.

“No. I don’t think I’m healing her. Our Aura heals our bodies. It feels… it feels more like I’m using my aura to amplify hers!”

Nora’s expression turned to one of concern. “Wait, aren’t you worried about running out?”

Jaune shook his head slightly. “No Pyrrha once told me I’ve got a lot of it and I still believe her.”

Suddenly Weiss began to star as she opened her eyes.

“Jaune?”

Nora smiles to Jaune as Weiss’ returning to consciousness confirmed that it was working, however this victory was short lived as Oscar let out a scream as he was hit with a lightning dust powered uppercut causing him to impact a wall before falling to the ground. Jaune spun his head back around to Nora.

“Go! I’ve got her!”

Nora nodded before looking back to Neo who was still fighting Ruby leaving a trail of illusions that the girls scythe cut through with annoyance.

“Jaune… What’s happening?”

Jaune looked down at Weiss as relief washed over him as he saw Weiss’ wound was now healed.

“You took a heavy hit, you need to stay with me while the others fight.”

“That’s…” She sighed as she rolled her eyes. “…annoying”

Jaune smiled with a small laugh “Good to have you back Weiss.”

Hazel charges forward towards Oscar who was still lent against the wall he impacted before quickly raining his cane blocking Hazel’s punch but knocking him back into the wall and breaking his stance.

“Hiding behind the face of a child? A monster like you must be stopped!”

Hazel’s follow up strike stopped as she turned towards the origins of a loud battle cry seeing Nora run towards him she leaped into the air about to bring Magnhild down on top of him, Hazel catches it taking a step back and slamming Nora into the ground he grabs her head, electrocuting her with his lightning dust, causing Nora to scream out in pain. Hazel looks up to Oscar.

“How many more children must die for you?”

Suddenly, Nora grabs Hazel’s wrist of the hand that was holding her down causing him to look down in confusion, he saw Nora kneeling under him with a now fully charged semblance, she threw his hand of her head causing him to lose balance backwards, she spun around picking up her hammer charging it with her semblance she slams it into his chest launching him several feet backwards. As Nora stood defensively in front of Oscar as Ozpin gets her attention.

“His semblance… he can block out pain. It’s how he is able to handle injecting so much Dust into his body.”

Nora stares back at Hazel as he stands back up as she steeled herself.

“I don’t need him to hurt… I just need him to go down!” As Hazel screams and charges forward Nora matches him running forwards. Just before the two meet Nora swings Magnhild back into Hazel’s chest, this time launching him through the wall and landing outside, in Haven’s Academy grounds. Hazel landed between a White Fang soldier and Adam Taurus, who both watched in amazement as he gets straight back up.

“What’s going on in there?”

“None of your concern.”

Hazel straightened out reaching back into his pouches on his legs he pulled out two red dust crystals stabbing them into his arms, letting out another roar as the dust coursed through his veins. Adam spun around addressing his followers.

“Stay focused! Our friends are almost done here.”

Just as the soldiers are about to resume their work a voice calls out to their leader.

“ADAM!”

Looking up at the origins they see Blake standing atop the roof of a nearby building.

“Blake?” Adam was surprised by her attendance, Blake vainly trying to overcome her obsession with running away from her problems.

Hazel only gave Blake a passing glance before turning back towards Haven.

“How is that?”

“Stand down!” Blake shouted at the soldiers only causing them to aim their weapons at her.

“Wait!” Adam raised his hands up in front of the White Fang soldiers signalling them to stand down as he started to laugh evilly.

“To think I went through all that trouble to find you, only to have you deliver yourself to me.”

Blake merely ignored him and addressed his followers.

“This isn’t what’s right for the Faunus! Stop what you’re doing and we can end this peacefully.”

“your wrong, Blake, and you can’t stop us.”

“No… I can’t. Not by myself.”

“That’s why she didn’t come alone.” Sun appeared to the left of the soldiers in surprise standing in front of a large mob of Faunus armed with improvised weapons and shield bearing the old White Fang symbol.

“What!” Adam shouted in frustration.

“Who’s there?” One of the soldiers shouted as the mob stepped out from the shadows into the moonlight.

“Your brothers and sisters” stated Ghira caused murmurs to spread through Adam’s ranks.

Adam turned to his followers before being able to speak however he is cut off as a Mistrali airship shines its searchlight down at him and his group. A police captain could be seen standing next to Kali addressing them and ordering them to lower their weapons and surrender.

Back inside everyone pauses as more Mistrali airships appear outside as more searchlights shine through the windows their confusion leading to a brief respite. Weiss leans up into a sitting position in front of Jaune.

“What’s happening?”

“I’m not sure. How are you feeling?”

As Weiss sat up she starts summoning a glyph in her hand demonstrating her renewed strength.

“Much better. Whatever you’re doing, keep it up.”

Back outside Blake jumps down onto the ground standing in front of Adam who struggled to contain his anger at the turn of events.

“How? How did you do this!”

“Adam, it’s over.”

Adam watches Blake’s Faunus get close to him and his followers before taking a step back and pulling out a detonator from his pocket.

“Then it’s over for all of us.”

“Hey wait!” one of his soldiers tried to stop him, lunging at him but he pushed the button before throwing them off him. The rest of his soldier braced themselves for the explosion but after a few moments of nothing Adam looked at the detonator with confusion before pressing it a few more times, leading to the same result.

As it dawned on his followers what he tried to do they slowly turned on him. “What are you doing? Trying to get us all killed!”

Adam grabs the Faunus that stood up to him by his collar before throwing him onto the ground as he shouted.

“I am making humanity pay for WHAT THEY’VE DONE!”

Blake took a step forward her calm demeanour standing in stark contrast to the increasing enraged Adam.

“We sent someone over confirm your explosive, and once we did, she disarmed them.” As she finished Ilia walks out from the shadows around the tower removing her camouflage holding out the wires to the disarmed bombs. Adam realizing the situation turned towards Hazel.

“What do we do.”

Hazel cracked his knuckles as he looked dismissively towards him, remembering how Adam had treated Sienna.

“this is your business. Not Mine. Fix it.”

Adam glares at Hazel before turning back to Blake.

“I told you, Adam. It’s over.”

Adam overcome with frustration and rage charges towards Blake unsheathing his blade he swings at Blake, Blake however activates her semblance getting out of the way and knocking him down with her fist causing him to fall to the ground on his knees as he turns to his followers.

“KILL THEM!”

The remaining White Fang soldiers draw their weapons on the poorly armed Faunus Ilia and Sun jumped into the fight drawing their attention while Hazel observes the Faunus infighting he is suddenly impaled by a glowing white Grimm stinger and pulled back inside the building. As he sits up he sees a recovered Weiss standing back on her feet with a summoned Queen Lancer flying overhead. Just as she prepares to fight Weiss gasps drawing the attention of Neo, Ruby and Jaune who follow Weiss’ eyes to someone entering the building. Ruby’s eyes widen in shock as she sees the last member of her team arrive. Blake and Weiss share a glance and nod at each other as the Faunus runs back outside to help her friends.

The Vault…

As the fighting continued above Yang uses her other Ember Celica to break her fall firing a few rounds to slow her momentum, hitting the ground with a loud thud she looks but to a glare from her mother which she matches with her own as she stands up from her landing walking forwards Raven.

“I warned you, Yang. I gave you every opportunity to walk away from Qrow and Oz. So, you can believe me when I say this wasn’t personal.”

“Wasn’t PERSONAL! You worked with the people that took Ruby, the people that turned her into a monster. You made it personal.”

Raven wasn’t sure how to respond, Yang was right. Even if Yang could see the way how it cut Raven to the core to see the daughter of her former leader warped into a tool for Salem it wouldn’t absolve her of what she had done. Before she could answer however Yang changed the topic, as she glances behind her mother she sees the body of Vernal slumped over.

“You opened the vault. Do I even want to know what happened to Cinder?”

“Thanks to the chaos you and your friends caused upstairs. I knew you could handle it. You’re my daughter after all.”

“I know how the Maiden powers work. So, the girl you found… she would’ve had to have trusted you if you were in her final thoughts… cared about you a lot.”

“I’m sure Qrow and Oz told you plenty and you just sat there and obeyed.”

“No, I’m starting to ask questions like you say. So, tell me… what happened to the last Spring Maiden? Did she die in battle? Was it sickness?”

Raven broke her eye contact with Yang looking away from her. “What does it matter to you?”

“I can already see the answer.” Yang’s widening in realization. “It’s all over your face. How could you?

“She was scared, weak when we found her. No matter what she never learned. She wasn’t cut out for this world! And with those powers she would have been hunted her entire life! What I did—”

“Wasn’t personal.”

Raven locked eyes with her daughter again at the dig.

“It was mercy!”

“Which is it, mom? Are you merciful, or a survivor? Did you let me walk into that trap because you knew I could handle it, or because it meant getting what you wanted, even if it meant using Ruby like they did?”

Raven’s eyes widen at the implication. “it’s not that simple…”

“Oh, shut up!” Raven took a step back as she saw her daughters eyes turn red, even with one arm the fight with Cinder had drained her and fighting Yang would serve no purpose.

“you turn your back on people, on family. The first sign that things get too hard you put other’s in harms way, you might be a maiden but that doesn’t make you strong?”

Matching her daughters anger Raven’s maiden powers activate the tell-tale shimmer from her eyes meeting Yang’s red gaze.

“ **Who do you think you are, lecturing me!** Standing there shaking like a scared little girl?”

“Yea I’m scared, for my friends upstairs who are having to fight a battle you helped cause, for my sister who for all I know is gone forever… but. I’m not running like you, which is why you’re going to give me the relic AND! You’re going to come with me upstairs and help Ruby.”

Raven scoffed, she had to give it to her daughter she demanded a lot from her. “And why would I—”

“Because **you are afraid!** Of Salem but more importantly of dad.”

“TAI?” Raven’s maiden powers deactivate in surprise as she takes a step back.

“He’s the only one who believed that the Raven he fell in love with still exists and when I tell him how you took advantage of the last thing meaningful thing he has of Summer, it’s going to break him. But better that than he lives with this false hope for the rest of his life.”

Raven stood there weighing up her options. Would Yang really do that to her own father? But she did say she do anything to get her sister back and if she was anything like herself then she certainly had the potential to do it. Yang walked past her mother walking into the relic chamber and picking it up by its handle, she stairs at the relic holding back the tears that threatened to break through her façade.

“you don’t want to do this Yang.”

“No, but it looks like I’m going to have to.”

As Yang made her way past Raven she kept her eye down at the relic, just before she could get out of reach Raven grabbed her arm causing Yang to turn her head and what she saw surprised her. Small tears threatened to drip from Raven’s eyes.

“Fine. I don’t promise anything, just that I’ll try.”

Yang offered her small smile.

“Sometimes that is all that matters.”

Above the vault…

Leaving Adam to run away Blake turns to Havens hall where the sounds of her friends fighting can be heard. Sun notices where her attention is drawn to.

“I think there’s a few people who could use your help.”

Blake turned to Sun before running to help her friends.

“Be careful.”

Sun answered with a smile “no promises.”

Blake smirks at Sun’s remarks as she runs to help her friends, what she sees however when she gets through the doors wipes any trace of a smile of her face. Weiss’ Queen Lancer was attacking Ruby? Ruby was taking pot-shots at Weiss in between dodging the Lancer with her scythe, just as Blake is about to entre Hazel uses the opportunity of Weiss focusing on Ruby to launch a combined fire and lightning attack on the summon causing the Lancer to dissipate as well as enabling Ruby to Land down and fire more shots at Weiss at an even faster rate.

Blake jumps into the carnage using her momentum from swinging with her weapon she kicks Hazel in the back of the head causing him to fall to the ground before landing next to Weiss and between her and Ruby causing her to stop firing. Neo used the opportunity offered to her to distracted Ruby further by appearing in front of her hooking her umbrella handle around Ruby’s neck she spins around and dragging her forwards forcing the girl to lose her balance before yanking her body backwards and punching Neo in the face, except instead of hitting solid flesh as she touched her cheek it her body shattered into glass as she left another illusion for Ruby.

Blake turned to Weiss who stared at her in shock.

“Are you hurt?”

“N- no! I just remember you being the more quiet one.”

“Why are you and Ruby attacking each other?”

Weiss flinched at the statement as it dawned on her Blake’s been out of the loop.

“Long story short, she’s being controlled by Cinder, we need to help her!”

“Agreed.”

As Hazel, Mercury and Emerald slowly made their way towards the two the remainder of JNPR jumped in front.

“You guys help Ruby, we’ve got this.”

Blake turned to Weiss with a smile.

“Checkmate?”

Weiss returned the expression as they spun around watching Neo evade Ruby with her semblance.

“Checkmate!” Weiss repeated in confirmation.

As Blake ran to help Neo fight Ruby, an idea that hours ago would seem crazy to her, Weiss planted her rapier into the ground causing a stream of ice to follow alongside Blake. Neo seeing the two behind Ruby bounced up into the air landing with her feet in the air using Roman’s cane to hold her up she kicked Ruby square in the chest causing the girl to stumble backwards feet first into Weiss’ ice. The scythe wielder spun her bod around in surprise seeing Blake run at her she fired a quick round out propelling her scythe around in a slash which Blake easily dodged by using her semblance to leave a clone to take the hit she jumps off its shoulders landing in front of Ruby using her ribbon wrapped around her weapon she throws it at Crescent Rose causing it to wrap around the handle she yanks it free from Ruby’s grasp causing the girl to elicit an aggressive yelp followed by a growl of anger before Blake pushed her backwards causing the Ruby to put her hands behind to break her fall straight into Weiss’ ice further pinning the girl to the floor.

Neo appeared next to Blake as Weiss ran over to her other side, all three took a moment to stare down at the leader of team RWBY struggling with all her might to free herself from the ice but the strain from fighting this long could be seen clearly from her rapid breathing and tired eyes. Blake turned towards Neo handing her one of her Ribbons as Weiss picked up Crescent Rose and put it into its compact form.

“When the ice melts tie her hands behind her back and keep an eye on her” Neo nodded in confirmation of Blake’s orders as the two girls ran back over to help their friends.

Weiss looked over and saw Oscar defending a clearly exhausted Qrow which is when it dawned on her all off them were exhausted even the people they were fighting were worn out at this point. Realizing this caused her to snap in annoyance.

“That’s enough already! Just give up.”

Mercury responded by slamming his fist into the ground as he struggled to remain on his weary feet. Emerald stepped forward in front of Hazel and Merc. “It’s not over! Cinder will come back, she’ll have the Relic, and she’ll stop all of you! She won’t let us down.”

Just as Emerald finished the platform to the vault enters earshot the tell-tale sign of her return, everyone pauses as they wait for the moment for the lift to arrive. Emerald falls to her knees as she sees Yang standing atop the platform Relic of Knowledge in hand, the surprise of Cinder failing causing her to drop her weapons in shock, whereas all of Yang’s friends look up at her with smiles of relief. Ruby, however seeing cinder’s failure to return causes her to renew her struggle to break free but the bindings of Blake and Neo remain true and forces her to slump over in exhaustion.

As Yang smiles back towards her friends she freezes and she shares a glance with Blake surprised at seeing her partner here, the moment however is cut short as Emerald lets out a loud scream drawing everyone’s attention to the girl, tears running down her eyes she activated her semblance filling the centre of the room with a giant Salem who bends downs towards the heroes letting out an ear-piercing scream she swoops down engulfing everyone within her mouth plummeting the room into darkness.

As the darkness clears everyone is still in the room except for Emerald, Mercury and Hazel.

Blake is the first to break the silence.

“What was that?”

Ozpin turned to the Faunus. “An illusion. But an accurate one. That… was Salem.”

A dark low laughter slowly fills the room. Everyone turns to its origins landing on the leader of Team RWBY who was on her knees with her hands bound behind her. Her laughter became louder until she started coughing from exhaustion.

“You guys have no idea what you’re up against do you?”

Weiss walked over to Ruby sitting down atop her knees in front of her partner, the pair stared into each other eyes before Weiss turned to the rest of them, her eyes meeting Yang’s.

“Would you guys give us a minute? Ruby and I need a good partner to partner talk.”

5 minutes later…

Blake let out a heavy sigh of relief as her parents and Sun walked into the great hall, the Belladonnas shared a hug thankful they were all safe. JNPR and Neo were with Qrow and Neo checking on each other as Yang stood behind Blake still holding the relic, Weiss still remained in front of Ruby while no one could hear what they were saying it was evident between the two that the conversation was heated.

As the Belladonnas broke the hug Kali and Ghira spoke to their daughter.

“the police rounded up the remaining White Fang members. Haven is Safe.

“Unfortunately, it appears Adam escaped.”

As Ilia walked into the hall she opened hr mouth to speak but was cut off.

“STOP! THAT’S NOT TRUE!”

Everyone turned their attention the source, Weiss. Who was starting to cry as Ruby had a smug grin at eliciting such a reaction from Weiss. In reaction, Yang walked up beside Blake placing her prosthetic arm around Blake she smiled towards her parents.

“Mr and Mrs Belladonna, I presume, I’m afraid I’ll have to borrow you daughter for a moment my sister needs her help.”

As Blake was pulled away by Yang she was stopped by Qrow who took the relic of her hands and asked her about what happened in the vault.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know exactly. When I got down there, Cinder was gone and Vernal was dead.”

“And Raven?”

Yang responded with a small smile before turning towards an empty part of the hall.

“You can come out now.”

A Raven flew out from the shadows turning into Raven in front of her brother, Qrow stepped forward drawing his weapon only being stopped by Yang standing between them.

“Mom and I have an agreement, she helps with Ruby and she doesn’t have to deal with you.”

Qrow took a step back growling in annoyance as Ozpin walked in between the twins, he turned to Raven.

“I feel I can help if you would, I’m familiar with how Salem works and while you may not trust me your daughter and brother do, so just this once for Ruby’s sake just listen.”

Raven gave a small nod as Ozpin took Raven to one side, Yang continued with Blake to Ruby and Weiss. Walking over it became clear that while Ruby was arguing with Weiss at the same time she was also crying though it didn’t seem as though she noticed it. When the two approached Ruby turned acknowledging their presence with a sick smile.

Ruby spoke in excitement and fake surprise “My dear sister and do my eyes deceive me or is that really Blake Belladonna, don’t you have problems to run away from? Mainly the blonde one beside you. Or are you here to try and help Weiss to convince me that what I’m doing is bad?”

If what Ruby said phased Blake she didn’t show it instead she maintained a neutral exterior as she knelt down next to Weiss matching Ruby’s stare, Blake’s however was unshifting the only break in it from her blinking. The discomfort it caused Ruby was evident as she squirmed slightly, a weak attempt to free herself from the bonds trapping her hands.

Blake gained a small smile as she remained staring at Ruby. “I’ll tell you what Ruby, you answer a single question and we’ll let you go. You can take as long as you want to answer as long as you promise to be truthful you’ll be free to re-join cinder or Salem, deal?”

Yang stepped forward to voice her disproval but before she could Blake raised her hand in silence as ruby processed the offer, Weiss looked at her friend with worry unsure what she was trying to play.

“Fine… ask away?” she growled in response.

Blake stood up and took a step back next to Yang.

“Why are you crying?”

When Blake asked Ruby smirked in victory, this would be the easiest question ever until she realized something… she was crying. How had she not even noticed, tears were streaming down her face at such a speed you could argue her semblance was affecting them. Yang frowned at the question as she looked between Blake and Ruby in confusion while Weiss remained locked on Ruby awaiting her response. Slowly a silence blanketed the group as Ruby thought long and hard about her answer.

“WELL!?” The impatience was eating at Yang as she took a step forward shouting at her sister, she was brought back by Blake’s arm.

Ruby looked all around her for help but found none. This could be her chance to get out scot-free, so she stared Weiss dead in the eyes as she took a breath.

“The pain I felt by Cinder and Salem pales in comparison to being the cause of Weiss’ crying.”

Weiss chocked on a sob as she rested her head on Ruby’s lap as Yang took a step back in surprise. Ruby looked up at Blake.

“Well, we had a deal.”

It was Blake’s turn to smirk. “I made you promise to tell the truth, I never said I was.”

Ruby’s eyes widened in anger as she gritted her teeth.

“NOW YOU LISTEN HERE YOU SHITTY, FAUNUS TRASH—”

Ruby’s rant cut short by a sudden stinging feeling to her cheek. Looking forward full of confusion she saw Weiss her eyes were red from crying and tears ran down her cheeks but the fury on her face was clear as day. When she spoke, her voice was close to breaking.

“No.”

“No?” Ruby asked in confusion, even Blake and Yang were surprised by Weiss physical response to Ruby’s building attack.

“Ruby, this isn’t you. you love Blake, you never cared that she was a Faunus and I refuse to sit here and listen to you hurt yourself by attacking Blake in such a disgusting manner.”

Yang walked forward resting her hand on Ruby’s shoulder.

“Sis this isn’t you, come on, we’re here to help now. I know you’re in there somewhere now.”

Ruby responded with a weak laugh. “Your all here now, good joke. You all abandoned me. I needed YOU! NOT NOW and not EVER!”

Ruby’s shouting brought over Raven and Oscar causing Ruby to roll her eyes in annoyance.

“OH, AND I SUPPOSE YOU’RE HERE TO MAKE IT ALL BETTER RIGHT, YOU ABANDONED THE LAST ROSE YOU WORKED WITH WHAT MAKES ME ANY DIFFERENT!”

The Oscar spoke clearly emphasised that it was him and not Ozpin in control right now. The differing ways the 3 girls looked at him made him nervous, the death glare from Ruby, Yang’s pleading eyes, Blake’s trusting ones and Weiss’ hopeful gaze meant Oscar stumbled as she spoke trying to copy word for word what Ozpin was saying. Most of it was magic sounding jargon as it became evident he wasn’t succeeding in explaining the plan Raven stepped forward.

“In simple terms, Ozpin has explained to me how I can use my Maiden powers to access Ruby’s mind.”

Yang turned to her mother. “But surely cinder did the same thing?”

Raven smirked. “Given the way that woman used her powers I doubt it would be anything impressive, it’s Salem’s part in this that worries me.”

Oscar nodded in agreement. “which is why you three will be doing this, now more than ever Ruby needs her friends not to relative strangers she has no reason to trust.”

“US?” the three spoke in unison and equal amounts of confusion.

As he spoke Oscar gestured towards Raven. “Using Raven’s Maiden powers, you three will entre Ruby’s mind and…” he paused as Ozpin tried to explain the intricacies to him, instead Oscar ignored him.

“… in essence your going to find her, somewhere in there and free her.”

As if forgotten, Ruby started to shake her head.

“Um, excuse me but I feel as though your forgetting something.”

Oscar turned to the Ruby addressing her for the first time.

“And that would be?”

“As much as I enjoy having people in my head, it’s not like I’m going to just you guys waltz in like some common dance party.”

Oscar smiled as he walked forward. “That’s easily solved.”

He raised his hand, resting it on Ruby’s forehead, everyone could feel a shift in air and Ruby slumped forward into Weiss’ lap.

Yang turned to the kid in shock.

“What did you do?”

Raven quickly stood between her daughter and him. “Just a sleeping trick Yang nothing more.”

Weiss looked up at Raven with a steel conviction, unknown to everyone else Weiss wasn’t looking up at Raven but through and behind her where the illusion of Ruby that has been haunting her stood smiling in excitement.

“So, what is it we ned to do?”

“Simple really. Yang your hand please?” Raven walked around standing to the left of Ruby placing her right hand on Ruby’s head she offered the left hand to Yang who after some trepidation accepted it, Raven then nodded towards Blake signalling Yang to offer her other which she did and Blake copied by offering her’s to Weiss. Almost instantly at Weiss accepting and grabbing hold of Blake’s hand the Hall of Haven Academy was replaced with a pitch white room and Ruby was missing. The trio stood up and spun around in confusion as Raven remained still. Weiss looked at Raven accusingly.

“Where are we and where is Ruby?”

Raven raised an eyebrow. “Really you have to ask? This is Ruby’s mind”

It was Blake’s turn to ask a question. “Why is it just a white room?”

“It will take a moment okay, this isn’t like calling someone on a scroll.”

When they blinked as they opened their eyes they were in a park. Or field. Except instead of green grass and full trees the dirt was dry, and the trees were bare of any leaves. The only sign of life was a little girl no more than 6, she was sat on a swing set however the chains of the swing were so rusted that it would more likely that the swing would break than ever serve its original purpose.

Weiss asked another question causing Raven to roll her eyes.

“Where are we?”

“Patch” Yang interrupted, breaking the trend of question with an answer.

“I think at least, I’d recognise this place anywhere, but I’ve never seen it so dead.” As they surveyed their surrounding as far as the eye could see there no signs of life be it person or plant except for this little girl. Turning towards her Yang stepped forward slowly, the kid had her back to the group and was yet to notice them.

“Um, excuse me but who are you?”

At being addressed directly the girl jumped of the swing in shock and spun around at seeing her face Yang froze along with her train of thought as she stared down at this little girl, who gave a small wave and a weak smile that acted as a weak attempt to cover the evidence that she had been crying.

“I’m Ruby silly.”


	18. Chapter 18

“Ruby?” Weiss’ voice matched the confusion on her face however the longer she stared at the small girl the clearer it became that this could actually be Ruby, her black hair with red tips and her silver eyes were dead give-aways.

Small Ruby’s weak smile grew to a grin as she planted her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest proudly.

“Yep! That’s me!”

Weiss and Blake shared a small smile as it became clear that 6-year old Ruby wasn’t much different than when they had been at Beacon. Weiss stepped forward crouching down so her head was the same height at Ruby’s, they both stared into each other’s eyes as Ruby raised a quizzical eyebrow.

“Ruby, why are you out here all alone?”

Ruby instantly deflated as her smile was replaced with a more sombre expression and Weiss felt a pang of guilt for upsetting her so visibly.

“I’m- “

“Waiting for mum?”

Yang finished her sentence for her causing Ruby to look her way with a sad smile and a small nod. Blake glanced over to Raven who had remained quiet and she couldn’t tell if Yang calling Summer mum hurt her. Yang turned to Blake and Weiss who stood up while Yang rested her prosthetic on the rusted swing, she gave it a small push, but it refused to budge.

“This is the park Mum would take us and after she died Ruby didn’t understand, she would wait here for her. Except this is all wrong. Patch isn’t some dead island, what happened here?”

“Salem.” Ruby answered solemnly. “She came and ruined everything.”

“Ruined how?” Blake asked surprising herself with how scared her voice sounded.

Ruby turned pointing into the distance and as the rest of them turned to follow her a wall in the distance appeared and while from afar it seemed small it still gave an imposing presence.

“Where did that come from?” Weiss asked taking a worried step back.

“Salem built it, it’s where she took Ruby and she threw the rest of us out here.”

“Us?”

Before Ruby could answer Raven spoke earning a glare from the younger Ruby.

“We’re in a graveyard, except instead of bodies it’s memories. The ones Salem didn’t want Ruby to remember, she perverted them so Ruby would remember all the negative emotions but not why and threw them out, replacing all the good memories with suffering.”

“I don’t like you.” Ruby spoke with some venom earning a small laugh from Weiss and Ruby continued glaring at Raven who returned the stare, this continued until Yang stepped between them.

“How can we be sure that Ruby is even in there?”

“What other purpose could a Grimm looking monster have with building a prison inside a person’s mind?” Weiss deadpanned her response to Yang causing Ruby to laugh at Yang.

“So, all we have to do is get in, free Ruby and get out? Sounds easy enough,” Yang asked stretching her hands behind her head, however instead of answering all the colour drained from Ruby’s face.

“Y-you can’t go in there!” She spoke quickly and with a small stutter.

Before Yang could respond Ruby activated her semblance dashing underneath the seat of the swing and grasping her knees up to her chest.

The 3 other members of Team RWBY shared a worried glance as they turned to her.

“Why not?” Weiss asked.

“The bad people will get you, their horrible and once they get you, you won’t be coming back.”

Just as Yang reached to rest her arm on the scared little girl the entire park turned to ashes that piled over Ruby and when Yang touched the pile it disintegrated into the wind.

“RUBY!” Yang screeched as they took as step back from the small dent of grass that remained.

Raven walked passed them unphased by the scene in front of her. “Come on, we haven’t got all day.”

Yang blinked the tears from her eyes causing them to turn red as flickers of flame dropped from her hair. “HOW DARE YOU! DO YOU NOT CARE?”

Raven made a noise between a growl and a sigh as she turned to her daughter.

“Look, that was just a memory, there are hundreds out here and most likely hundreds in there.” She gestured towards the prison. “You can’t lose sight of why we are here and that isn’t to act as a shoulder to cry on for all of her memories. It’s to try and save you sister and leader or am I the only one who has remembered that.”

“Yang come on. The faster we save Ruby the less time we and she has to spend in there.” Weiss placed her arm on Yang’s shoulder calming her down stopping the flames from flickering off her hair and causing her eyes to turn lilac.

Yang sighed as her shoulders dropped, letting out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. She gave a small nod in confirmation to Weiss and looked over to Blake who offered a comforting smile. Looking back at Raven.

“Fine, you lead the way then.”

As Raven turned the rest fell into a line behind her, Raven set a quick pace evidently uncomfortable with being here. It soon became clear that the building was further away than it seemed as after what felt like hours Yang had to stop for a moment to rest her legs, this elicited a tut of annoyance Raven. As Weiss and Blake turned to check on their teammate they were confronted with a decrepit building just behind Yang which certainly wasn’t there before, even Raven froze when she noticed the house behind her daughter.

Yang straightened up after rubbing her legs a little and was met with the wide-eyed Raven and frozen faces of her teammates. She laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck with her hand.

“Sorry guys I didn’t know I’d offend you that badly just by getting tired.”

“Not you Yang behind you.” Weiss snapped.

Yang slowly turned around scared at what could cause such a reaction from all of them. As she turned she nervously swallowed, coming face to face with her childhood house except instead of aged wooden building she remembered it was a burnt wreck, the windows were smashed, and the roof was caved in, the front door was in splinters and across laid a tattered red clock. Yang slowly stepped backwards until she was again between Blake and Weiss, it broke her heart to see it in such a state and her shaky breath robbed her of any composure.

“Come on.” She choked out before coughing in an attempt to cover up her emotions. “Ruby needs us.”

Before any of them could answer Yang spun back around and barged past her mother storming ahead of them. Raven turned visibly annoyed at how Yang rudely made her way past followed soon by Blake who had to quickly turn back for Weiss who was still frozen.

“Weiss?”

Weiss spun around seemingly snapping out of her trance before joking to catch back up with the rest of them. “Sorry, I’m coming.”

Not long after encountering the house did they make it to the wall which stood now an easy 6 stories high and blocking any attempt to even see over it. They walked along the wall for another few minutes before coming to a door which read _Authorized Personnel Only!_ As Yang tested the door she was surprised to find it unlocked, before she opened it fully she looked back at Blake and Weiss who both nodded at Yang with determination. Yang responded by opening the door the rest of the way, revealing a tunnel with lights along the walls and a small opening at the end.

As the 4 of them made their way towards the end of the tunnel they were greeted with a blinding light from the sun and as their eyes adjusted to the brightness it gave way to an immaculate white building. They all instantly recognised it as Vale General Hospital except it seemed to be completely deserted, no one was coming in or out and all the ambulances remained parked and unused. When they reached the main entrance, Raven grabbed onto Yang’s hand drawing her attention.

“You 3 go on ahead I’ll watch the way out, besides this is the reason you 3 are here.”

Yang nodded in agreement.

“Is it such a good idea splitting up?” Blake felt it was tempting fate to separate from each other.

Raven turned to the Faunus.

“Knowing you three I’d just get annoyed and this way I can keep an eye out for those bad people Ruby mentioned. Just do try to be quick, this place makes me uncomfortable.”

“Okay mom. Come on team lets go get Ruby.”

As the 3 of them made their way into the hospital Raven turned away and sighed as she stared out into the distance.

Inside the hospital….

As Yang, Weiss and Blake made their way past the reception desk, a noise caught their attention around a corner as they ran towards it Blake caught Yang by her collar before she could run around the corner, eliciting a small yelp from Yang who spun around clearly annoyed but was met with Blake holding her finger over her mouth shushing her. Blake took a small peak around the corner and visibly tensed up.

“It’s Mercury and Emerald, their sat at the nurses station at the end of the hall.” She whispered just so Yang and Weiss could hear her.

“perhaps it would be best not to draw their attention so soon?” Weiss put forward to the team and both of them nodded in agreement. Since the hallway split in two they elected to take the second one which was otherwise empty. They quietly jogged down towards the end which brought them to a door, the sign next to should’ve read _Morgue_ but this was crossed out violently and written messily underneath in black was the word _Engineering_. Weiss slowly opened the door and made her way into the dark room, soon followed by Yang then Blake who closed it behind them. The room was a mess. The morgue tables were cluttered with wires, screws even a disassembled Crescent Rose was spread across one of them. The Freezer units usually stored with bodies were overflowing with artificial body parts that ranged from simple prosthetics to parts for Atlas robots. The trio’s attention was quickly drawn to a crashing sound from an adjoining room which was followed by angry screaming. Before Weiss and Blake could react, Yang ran into the room forcing the two to follow her.

“Yang you can’t just-” Weiss’ scolding was cut off as she came face to face with a half-assembled Penny, her otherwise human appearance ruined by missing body parts and the left side of her face was removed leaving her left eye staring uncomfortably straight into Weiss’ eyes, while exposing the hardware beneath.

Before any of them could finish processing what they saw a familiar voice came from behind them, full of surprise and anger.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Screamed the voice.

The trio spun around and were met with a stern gaze from what seemed to be their Ruby. The visible differences being her usually immaculate Beacon Academy uniform was covered in grease and oil marks, it was untucked, torn in some places and instead of a red cape she wore a blacksmiths apron which had various tools sticking out from its pockets while her face carried the signs of little sleep and her makeup had run from crying.


	19. Chapter 19

The trio took a tentative step backwards from the clearly surprised Ruby, who moved towards the table that kept her disassembled Crescent Rose. Yang was the first one to speak.

“Ruby, what are you doing here?” Yang’s voice was full of concern and threatened to break as she saw her sister. As ruby heard Yang’s question she froze for a moment while answering she kept her back to her team while messing around with something on the table.

“isn’t it obvious? I’m trying to bring Penny back?” Ruby responded blankly with a mumble as if it was the most obvious question in the world.

The way Ruby answered caused concern in the group as they glanced at each other. “But Penny is dead Ruby, and she isn’t coming back. Once her soul left her body nothing could be done. It’s not your fault.”

Ruby spun around brandishing a pistol which she pointed between them. “HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT!”

“NOT MY FAULT!”

Ruby’s eyes widened as she realized what she was doing as tears started to stream down her face again. Ruby placed her hands on top her head as if in pain while still grasping onto the gun, she closed her eyes and it was clear that whatever was happening inside her head was hurting her. Weiss took a small step forward next to Yang.

“Ruby, it’s not your fault. Cinder and Salem used her to send a message, you can’t blame yourself.”

As Weiss spoke Ruby’s breathing lowered as her expression softened however when she opened her eyes they had turned black and red like a Grimm, her soft expression was quickly replaced with a cruel smile.

“She said you would try to blame her, that none of you really cared about Penny or me.” Ruby spoke coldly, her voice full of contempt.

“Who Ruby?”

A small grin spread across Ruby’s face as she stared into Yang’s eyes. “Salem, of course.”

In an instant Ruby brought her gun up in front of her and pulled the trigger, everyone ducked aside to avoid the bullet as the sound reverberated throughout the room, soon followed by the tell-tale pinging of the bullet embedding into the wall. Ruby seemed surprised by the fact no one was hurt as she brought the pistol in front of her face she stared intently at it.

“Damnit, I forgot to fix the sights on this damn thing.”

As she spoke Weiss noticed Yang’s hair flickering with small flames small strands of blonde hair floated in front of her. Realizing what might have happened she turned to her friend and what she saw confirmed her suspicions. Yang’s eyes turned red as she blinked moving them between her hair and Ruby, slowly Yang breathed in.

“Not…Even…You…Ruby… GET TO MESS WITH MY HAIR!” As Yang spoke she extended out her gauntlets firing rounds either side of her, knocking over various tables. As Ruby witnessed Yang knock over her stuff she screamed, eyes wide with horror before activating her semblance and quickly checking on all the bits and pieces that had been knocked over. She stopped on her knees crumpled over one of the knocked over piles as she made sure nothing was broken.

“NONONO… DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!”

Ruby twisted her head looking Yang right in her eyes with such murderous intent that shocked Yang right to her core, giving her a moment in which she realized what was happening, her sister had just shot at her and she was seconds from attacking her back.

“Ruby I-”

Her response was cut short as Ruby used her semblance again to dash across the room in front of Yang and using her free hand to shove her backwards forcing Blake and Weiss to catch her, she raised her gun back at them as her eyes remained red and black.

“You what? Care? HA! You make it sound so simple. Salem is the villain. But from where I’m standing it isn’t so clear.”

As Ruby spoke the room darkened while she was slowly surrounding by rising rose petals that spun ferociously around her, as more appeared they spread outwards forcing the trio backwards. As the group continued they eventually hit the wall while the petals continued spreading. Eventually, the petals reached the trio and nicked Yang’s cheek cutting her slightly, forcing her hand to cover it.

“RUBY!”

Weiss screamed as she was overcome with fear. In an instant all the petals froze, and Weiss could see Ruby staring at her, except now her eyes had turned back to their normal trademark silver. Weiss took a tentative step forwards but was met with dozens of rose petals appearing in front of her, she paused before taking small breath.

“Ruby, let us help you.”

“Get out.” Ruby snapped back quickly.

“Ruby ple-”

“NOW!” As Ruby shouted she slowly became surrounded in petals that became to fully encapsulate her like a cocoon. Just as Ruby’s hand shot out of the shell launching a stream of petals straight at the them a scream pierced through the room, this led to Ruby using her semblance to quickly fly into the side room which held the partially built Penny.

“I’m coming Penny.” Ruby shouted as she flew through the air, in an instant the door slammed behind her and all the petals blinked away from existence. Before Weiss could even process what happened, Yang tapped her on the shoulder drawing her attention to a door that had appeared behind them. Blake quickly opened it and the three of them ran through however before Weiss could close it behind her it disappeared, and she faced a plain white wall.

Weiss stomped her foot in annoyance as she shrugged. “Great now we have no way to get back.” It took her a moment to realize that as she stared annoyingly at the wall neither Blake or Yang answered her, annoyed at them ignoring her. She turned around fully prepared to berate them until she saw what had caught their attention. The door had led them into a hallway that seemed to be endless and there were hundreds of rooms on either side all with the identical solid steel door, all of which had slots to which you could see into.

Blake walked over to the closest one on the left peering through the slot, as Yang did the same to the one on the right.

“Guys, Ruby is in there.”

Blake saw Ruby in a padded cell, she was trapped in a straitjacket and was sat in the furthest corner from the door, staring at it with such horror that she failed to even notice Blake looking at her.

“That can’t be right.” Yang responded before she turned to Blake while pointing through the door she had looked through. “She’s right here.”

Blake ran over to Yang’s door peering through it. It was definitely Ruby except this one had broken her right arm free from the jacket and had somehow procured a pen with which she had drawn her signature rose petal pattern all over the walls and floor and was now rocking backwards and forwards as she sat directly in the middle of the room with her back to the door.

As Weiss ran over and looked through the door she gave an exasperated sigh.

“So how are we supposed to fig-”

Her sentenced died in her throat causing Yang and Blake to turn to her with concern as Weiss just stood there with her eyes wide. In an instant Weiss used her gravity glyphs to launch her towards a cell some doors down.

“You what did you say?”

Weiss spoke quickly, as the others were forced to run and catch up.

“Weiss you can’t just-”

Weiss shot her hand up to silence Yang as she put her face up to the slot in the door.

“what did you say?”

Weiss couldn’t see the Ruby in this cell until she shot up from under the door causing the three of them to step back, clearly surprised. Ruby just stared at them with wide eyes, her pupils were dilated, and she seemed confused as to how they were there. Ruby spoke slowly as if she didn’t believe they were really here, standing in front of her.

“The pain I felt by Cinder and Salem pales in comparison to being the cause of Weiss’ crying.”

As Ruby spoke, Weiss struggled to hold back a sob and when she finished Weiss’ hands shot towards the door grasping the handle she tried to open it, but it didn’t budge.

“RUBY!” She screamed, except instead of answering her Ruby simply shook her head sideways.

“nonono… not your Ruby.”

Weiss lent back slightly standing back in between Yang and Blake.

“What do you mean?”

Ruby frowned as she struggled to think of the right words. She nodded towards the doors as she spoke. “We’re not real Rubys, We’re… failures.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Salem came, forced Ruby to become what she wanted. We’re just the bi-products. The Ruby you fought was broken down and we’re what remains.”

“Broken down? Where is Ruby?”

Ruby nodded her head towards the end of the hallway.

“Intensive care.”

The three of them turned to leave but Ruby shouted to draw their attention.

“WAIT!”

“You need to know.”

Weiss turned and rested her hand on the door. “know what?”

“She doesn’t remember… everything in here is wrong, except one thing.”

“What’s that?” Blake asked as she gave a worried glance to Yang.

Ruby nodded towards Weiss.

“You. Everything in here is wrong, except one thing. You, Weiss. Salem missed something; one memory. All those nights Ruby spent studying, all the same expect for one. The one where-”

“I promised to be the best partner ever.” Weiss finished for her and she was rewarded with what had to be the happiest smile Weiss had ever seen Ruby make.

“Just remember that nothing in here is real.” Ruby spoke as she rested back down against the door of her cell apparently content with the knowledge her friends would try to save her.

The trio nodded amongst themselves and ran towards the end of the hallway.

Eventually they reached a grand sat of double doors that seemed almost Beacon-esque. Weiss barged through the doors with newfound determination. As they made their way through the doorway, they were momentarily blinded by a bright light. As the trio blinked they appeared in front of Beacon Academy, Weiss could see the pile of luggage Ruby had knocked over when they first met, still covered in ash from when she sneezed, except this time it was accompanied with a layer of blood, the amount of which caused Weiss to flinch slightly at the implication.

As she tore her eyes from the blood she was met with her own scornful glare. Weiss instantly recognised herself standing in front of her except this copy held her rapier in her one hand which was covered in blood as she used a torn shred of Ruby’s cape to wipe the blood off.

Overcome with rage Weiss stormed up to this evil version of her grasping at her collar with both arms, she dragged their faces within inches of each other.

“What have you done?” Weiss spat.

In response she was met with a sickly smile and a shove from the hand which held a piece of Ruby’s cape, leaving a smudge of blood on Weiss’ jacket. The other Weiss flicked her wrist which caused the rest of the blood on her rapier to splatter along the floor.

“I merely taught that brat to respect her betters.”


	20. Chapter 20

“I merely taught that brat to respect her betters.”

Weiss stood in front of her evil imposter, her blood ran cold at the implication. Before she realized what she was doing Weiss stepped forward again grabbing their collar and pulling her face close up to her own.

Weiss spoke softly as her small breaths demonstrated the lengths that it took to contain her rage.

“Her better? Ruby is the best of us! She’s the best part of me.” The only response was a raised eyebrow followed by a small smile.

“Uh, Weiss!” Yang’s voice was fully of worry.

“What?” Weiss snapped as she spun around. Yang had her gauntlets extended and stood defensively wile Blake had her weapon drawn. Weiss frowned in confusion before turning back around following their eyes.

Behind her evil copy sprouted a dozen red Grimm tentacles that ended in their signature white bone barbs. Weiss took a shocked step backward, in response the tentacles snapped towards her direction as if staring at her, this caused Weiss to freeze as that sickly grin returned to her imposter.

“Where is Ruby?” she asked failing to sound confident.

The other Weiss offered a weak laugh as she stroked one of the tentacles before turning her attention back to Weiss.

“She is where she belongs. Suffering for her crimes.”

“Crimes?” just as the word left Weiss’ lips her chin was caught in an iron grip as the other Weiss lunged forwards grabbing it tightly pulling their foreheads together, in response the tentacles started to run themselves through Weiss’ hair in an attempt to discomfort her.

“Her crimes. That’s a long list, let’s see. First, she let Penny die, then she let Pyrrha die, she almost killed her friends, she attacked her own team after abandoning them and we can’t forget all those poor defenceless huntsmen and huntresses.”

“Salem’s to blame, not Ruby!”

Evil Weiss scoffed at her other self.

“Oh, Salem’s to blame alright, but not for that. For giving Ruby the justice, she deserves, locked away and paying for what she had done.”

Weiss was shoved again as the evil copy stepped and flicked her wrist apparently giving the signal for the tentacles to attack as they flashed forward shooting towards Weiss. Before they could impact however they crashed into a glyph, as Weiss unholstered her rapier she spawned a gravity glyph above the tentacles causing them to be forced onto the ground, this time Weiss was the one to flick her wrist slashing her rapier across the trapped tentacles heads disarming them and causing them to squeal and retreat back behind the visibly annoyed evil Weiss. Before she could respond however, Weiss dashed forward by spawning a gravity glyph behind her, crashing into her evil self and stabbing her rapier just above her shoulder. Weiss looked down at herself with ragged breaths, showing small signs of the effort required to act that fast. Yang and Blake ran beside her, themselves shocked at the speed in which Weiss had acted. She leaned in closely to the evil Weiss’ face.

“now you listen to me! I’ve had a very long day and I’m more than happy to beat myself up. So, I’ll only ask you this once, where is Ruby?” to emphasise her point Weiss summoned her knights sword to hang beside her head pointing straight down towards her eyes.

The other Weiss growled in anger before slumping onto the ground.

“Fine, it doesn’t matter anyway, you can’t help her.”

Yang knelt down beside the two Weiss’. “What do you mean?”

Yang felt a small chill run down her spine as she locked eye with the evil Weiss.

“If you think this is bad, then you clearly have no idea what you are doing.”

Weiss lowered her knight’s sword, so it was pressing against her other’s neck, reminding her to answer the question.

“Head to the infirmary, you’ll find her in there, or what’s left of her.” Evil Weiss started laughing as she finished, her laugh echoing throughout Beacon, before she herself turned into dust disintegrating like a Grimm alongside what was left of the tentacles around her.

Weiss stood up as she looked over to Yang, she could see her eyes turn read as she whispered to herself “what’s left of her?” Weiss stepped over and put her hand on Yang’s shoulder. “it doesn’t matter, it’s Ruby.” She succeeded in comforting Yang who nodded in reassurance.

Turning the group ran towards the Dorm rooms to cut through them for the infirmary. As they made their way past team RWBY’s room they paused for a moment as the door had been smashed open, chunks spread around as pieces limply hung off the hinges. Taking a tentative step inwards they saw the beds destroyed, torn clothes thrown everywhere as Blake’s bow was strapped around the burning remains of Crescent Rose suspended in the air, Ruby’s cape was impaled against the wall with ice shards. The team shared worried glances before continuing onwards to the infirmary.

As the team rounded the corner for the infirmary they stopped, instead of being met with the white doors of Beacon infirmary, they were replaced with black asylum doors which were bolted closed, a small red light above the blinked, next to the light was a sign.

_treatment in progress when flashing_

The trio stepped forward slowly as Yang extended her right gauntlet, smashing it down onto the padlock that kept the bolt in place. She pulled it back unlocking the door with a small creak. As she pulled it open Blake stepped through followed by Weiss then Yang. The room was entirely padded with the exception of the floor, the door they came through and another black door on the other side of the room. In front of them was a table on the opposite side facing them was Ruby, she was sat down with her eyes closed and her hands were locked onto the table, two familiar figures sat with their backs to them they were slightly hunched over leaning across the table each holding one of Ruby’s hands while whispering quietly. Ruby’s face was scrunched up in pain as if she was being assaulted by loud music while suffering nightmares at the same time.

Suddenly, the door slammed shut followed by the clear sound of the bolt locking back across the doors. The two figures spun around, as they let go of Ruby’s hands, she became visibly relieved and sunk into her chair, her eyes remaining closed as she sighed. The trio stared at the two figures in front of them with shock, on the left sat Pyrrha and the right was Penny. Penny shot up out of her seat, shouting as she marched towards them.

“NO NO NO YOU CAN’T BE HERE, YOU DON’T BELONG!”

As Weiss went to shove Penny away from them the second her hand touched Penny’s body, she collapsed onto her knees grasping at her head in pain, Weiss’ mind was assaulted by a horde of voices all shouting at once.

“TO BLAME!”

“FAILURE!”

“TRAITOR!”

Wiess struggled to comprehend all that was rushing through her head but images of Penny being killed at Beacon were clear as day, these along with the voices quickly dissipated, wearing off as she recovered from the onslaught.

“WEISS! Are you okay?” Blake asked shocked at how a simple touch impacted her.

Yang and Blake stepped next to Weiss to help her, each crouching to check she was okay. Weiss gasped for breath as she shook her head side to side before shooting back up drawing her rapier and pointing it at Penny, pressing it menacingly against her chest, tears could be seen coming from Weiss.

“SHE WAS YOUR FIRST FRIEND! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO HER, MAKING HER SEE AND HEAR THOSE AWFUL THINGS?”

Penny stepped forward causing Weiss’ rapier to dig itself into her stomach, causing a surprised look from Weiss and then Blake and Yang. Penny continued forward until she was at the hilt of Myrtenaster, smiling when she blinked her eyes turned red and black like a Grimm.

“She knew something was wrong, but she didn’t help, she just watched, on her knees as I was killed. What kind of friend does that?”

It sounded exactly like Penny but there was something off, a sinister aura permeated from both of them so strongly that all 3 of them could feel it like a shiver that they couldn’t shake. In response, Weiss flicked her arm to the right, ripping Penny’s chest in half causing her to collapse onto the floor.

“You’re not her friend, the real Penny was her friend.”

Pyrrha shot up from her seat and brought her arm forward activating her semblance everyone’s weapons became immovable in their hands but before Pyrrha could exploit her advantage a summon appeared above her head and a Lancer stinger shot out impaling itself in Pyrrha and flinging her across the room, as she crashed into the wall she slumped over unconscious.

Yang and Blake looked at their team member with surprise.

“Holy shit Weiss!” Yang exclaimed before being followed up by Blake, “that was pretty badass.”

Weiss ran over to the table, sitting in Pyrrha’s seat, she reached over and grabbed Ruby’s hand. However, Ruby shrieked in shock, trying in vain to jerk away as she remained pinned to the table by the cuffs. Yang ran around to her sister, breaking her free from the cuffs. In response, Ruby used her semblance and shot away into the corner furthest from them, she curled up with her head behind her knees and her hands wrapped tightly around her legs.

She breathed rapidly in shock as she kept her eyes closed, muttering something to herself they couldn’t hear. The trio shared another worried look before Weiss stepped forward kneeling in front of Ruby.

Before speaking she rested her hand softly on Ruby’s knee causing the girl to tense up and stop her muttering and breathing as she expected the return of her nightmares. Instead she was met with the soft voice of Weiss.

“Ruby? It’s okay, it’s us, your team.”

Ruby slowly opened her eyes as she looked at Weiss for the first time.

“Weiss?”

Before Weiss could respond Ruby jumped on her hugging her as she rested her head into Weiss’ shoulder. The two were joined by Blake and Yang who surrounded them in their arms comforting them both.

Ruby broke the silence first. Speaking quietly into Weiss’ shoulder.

“But I don’t understand, how are you all here?”

Yang let out a small laugh. “Ozpin and Raven if you can believe it.”

Ruby pulled out of the hug looking at Yang. “Raven?” she said clearly surprised. Yang nodded in response.

As the 4 of them stood up Ruby shrieked in pain as one hand grabbed her head and the other braced herself against the wall. Weiss shot a hand to Ruby’s shoulder to catch her.

“Are you okay?” Weiss asked concerned for her partner.

“No.” Ruby laughed as she wiped away some tears with her sleeve.

Blake turned to the door they came from and pushed against it confirming that it was locked, she turned back to her team. “looks like we will have to go the other way.”

Ruby shot up straight in shock her eyes wide.

“NO!”

This caused Yang and Weiss to take a step back fearing how Ruby could react.

“Why Ruby? What’s in there?” Yang questioned her sister softly keeping her distance, so she didn’t feel cornered.

Ruby turned to Yang and Blake.

“Don’t you get it! This whole place is a prison, and the only person in here is me.”

She turned towards the ominous black door. “I’m in there.”

 

 


	21. Chapter 21

Weiss and Yang took a tentative step back while sharing a look of concern.

“What do you mean you’re in there?” Yang asked slowly.

Ruby used her semblance to dash across the room before landing in one of the chairs at the table while grasping her head with both hands, pulling at the roots of her hair. As she struggled to control her breathing Weiss walked over to her resting her hand on her shoulder.

“Ruby, it’s okay.”

“It’s not okay Weiss. You don’t understand, none of you do.”

Weiss sat down in the chair next to Ruby’s pulling the hand closest to her off of Ruby’s head and into her own hand, drawing Ruby’s eyes towards her.

“Then explain it to us, help us to understand.”

Weiss held Ruby’s hand in a firm grasp, squeezing it slightly for support as Ruby brought her other hand down over her face rubbing it in frustration.

“After the incident with the Nuckelavee, Salem punished me for failing her.” Ruby took a deep breath as she locked eyes with Weiss and placing her free hand on the table as Yang and Blake walked over standing behind her.

“She gets into your head whether you want her to or not, you’ve seen what she’s done, she’s taken everything from me-.”

Weiss squeezed Ruby’s hand interrupting her. “Not everything Ruby, not your friends, or family.”

Ruby and Weiss shared a small smile as Ruby looked between the three of them before she continued, taking a deep breath before she did.

“Salem has this way when she gets into your head where she creates copies of you. She tortures them, and I feel everything they do, we’re linked, hundreds of them all broken by Salem in hundreds of different ways.” Ruby turned her gaze towards the door that held her other.

“And she was the first, Salem wanted to see how far she could go.” She raised her free hand pointing towards the door. “And that’s what she got.”

“She got something even she couldn’t control so she locked her away… but not before she did something to her that she made sure I would never forget how it feels.” Ruby closed her eyes using her free hand to rub her eyelids. “I can still feel the burning, like a campfire in the morning.”

Weiss moved her hand from Ruby’s over her back resting on her shoulder. “It’s okay Ruby she can’t hurt you now.”

Ruby gave a weak laugh before turning to Weiss, her eyes seemed defeated to Weiss. “I wish that was true.” She whispered softly.

Yang stepped forward next to Ruby. “It’s okay sis, no matter what’s in front of us we’ll beat it together, as a team.” She crossed her arms and puffed out her chest as a demonstration of confidence as Blake placed her hand on Yang’s shoulder.

“Yang’s right Ruby, we’re stronger together… As a team.”

Ruby shot up suddenly surprising her teammates who watched in shock as Ruby stormed her way over to the door.

“You don’t get it do you? What’s in there is something so dark, so evil that not even Salem the queen of Grimm could control. Something that is worse than a Grimm, at least they are drawn towards negative emotions, she just creates them for fun, Because she can!” Ruby lent her head against the door, small little noises that were difficult to discern could be heard coming from it.

Weiss’ hand pulled Ruby around, so she was forced to stare at the faces of her teammates.

“It doesn’t matter Ruby, we’re here, we’ve made it this far and together we’ll finish this.”

Blake spoke with such force that it surprised the rest of them and even herself, breaking her usually quiet façade.

Ruby looked down in shame, she felt she had failed as leader, she couldn’t look at them anymore.

“How can you guys say that, I was just trying to kill you all moments ago?” Her eyes stayed glued to their feet, of which she saw Yang’s step forward followed by a hand pulling her face up by her chin until she was looking at the warm smile and lilac eyes of her sister.

“That wasn’t you, it’s not your fault, Cinder and Salem are to blame for that. What happens from now is your choice, we’ll never take that away from you Ruby… so what will it be, leader?”

Ruby smiled as she nodded before turning and grabbing at the sturdy handle, she turned it but before she pulled the door, she paused turning her head slightly towards her team.

“Whatever you do, don’t make a noise, not a peep and pray that she doesn’t notice us, if she does… well it could get ugly.”

It was their turn to nod, but a small amount of worry had crept into their expressions as something that scared Ruby this much must be serious and after seeing what this place held, they were all concerned about what it could be.

The door gave a small squeak as it came free from its holding, it made little noise other than that as is swung open as Blake reached out grabbing it before it could hit the wall preventing it from banging.

Ruby took a deep breath and stepped forward before pausing again.

“Do your best to follow my footsteps.” Ruby spoke quietly before continuing her slow pace.

The rest soon followed behind as the door quietly and slowly crept closed not even making a sound except for the little tick signalling it had locked itself. As they followed Ruby, they took the time to survey the room, it was a wide room almost like a ballroom except the front seemed to go on endlessly and it was devoid of natural light, through the windows it was as if night had descended as the only source of light were strips of bulbs that ran along the walls and hanged from the ceiling.

The door they had appeared from seemed to be a side door and Ruby stopped before pointing towards another door on the other side of the room which had a small sign above it lit in green marking _Exit_.

It took a moment for them to notice it but there was a clear sniffling coming from the room like someone had tired themselves out from crying as they continued to follow Ruby their eyes searched for the source of the noise, landing upon the stand at the front of the room. They could see a small figure draped in a red cape on her knees with her head against the ground, in front of her were rows and rows of small little concrete pillars, as they focused on them, they realized they were tombstones which went on as far as the eye could see.

They had almost made it about halfway across when Yang almost walked into Ruby who had stopped leading causing Yang to look at her sister, when she did she saw Ruby looking behind her with her eyes wide open in horror, spinning her head around Yang looked past Blake to Weiss who was bringing up the rear, except Weiss was a noticeable distance from the rest, she had frozen staring at the other Ruby in the room. Blake took small steps back retracing her steps before landing her hand on Weiss’ shoulder. The contact snapped Weiss out of her state causing her head to snap to Blake’s followed by a quick vocal snap.

“What?” Weiss said without thinking, instantly realizing what she had done the group all froze. Silence descended on the room as even the small sniffling stopped. The only break in the silence was a small flutter which was accompanied by a flurry of rose petals. Weiss stayed locked on Blakes eyes which were flicking between Weiss’ and something next to Weiss, the look of concern on Blake’s face made the hairs on the back of Weiss’ neck stand up.

Weiss slowly turned her head towards the front of the room. She almost gasped in shock as less than an inch in front of her she was met with Ruby’s face, except it wasn’t. The first thing she noticed were Ruby’s trademark silver eyes were missing, as if they had been burnt away and there were visible scratches around her eye sockets. The second thing she noticed was the huge grin that was spread across her face. Weiss stayed silent even holding her breath.

Blake turned her head towards Yang who had tapped her shoulder lightly without making a noise, Yang gestured for her to look at Ruby who pointed at Blake and Weiss, she was mouthing the word pull. In an instant Ruby activated her semblance as Blake yanked Weiss towards her placing her hand softly over Weiss’ mouth to signal for her to be quiet, Ruby appeared where Weiss had stood taking her place almost exactly save for the difference in height. While she seemed to hold a stoic look the way how her jaw was constantly tensing, and releasing showed that she was nervous.

“Hey Ruby.” She spoke softly leading to her blind counterpart to take a step back in confusion as her eyebrows crossed in frustration.

“You’re not Weiss, IcouldhavesworniheardWeiss.” She spoke faster than Nora on caffeine the excitement of having someone in her room clearly overflowing from her.

“Nope, just me.” The way Ruby spoke meant it was evident that she was nervous.

Blind Ruby took a step forward back to where she was before taking a deep breath through her nose followed by the return of the huge grin she just had. The way she stared at Ruby you would think it was as if she still had eyes.

“I can smell her you know; now why would it smell of Weiss?” She spoke victoriously as if she had trapped Ruby with her question.

“It smells like Weiss cause I’m thinking about her, we always are.” Ruby followed up her point with a jab of her finger at the blind girls stomach to emphasise her point, however her grin somehow only got wider.

“Then why do I also smell Yang and Blake?”

Ruby stepped back in concern as she looked towards her team, the other Ruby looked around the room as if it would help.

“They’re here aren’t they? Really here! Come on it’s been so long. Let me see them. Pretty please?” she ended with a pout almost as genuine as Ruby’s trademark puppy dog eyes.

“There not here and even if they were, I wouldn’t let you, you’d just want to kill them.” Ruby spoke matter-of-factly as if the answer didn’t surprise her, but she could tell from the looks on her team it this shock them.

The blind Ruby used her semblance to appear behind Ruby resting her head on the girls shoulder wrapping her hands around her stomach.

“Ah come on don’t be such a grouch, if you let me then they get to stay here forever with the both of us.” Ruby shuddered as she felt the girl talk next to her. Before she could respond the other girl continued to speak and while Ruby couldn’t see it, she could almost hear the smile on the girl grow bigger.

“You’re a lousy liar Ruby Rose and you especially can’t lie to yourself. Besides the moment I stood here, I could hear their heartbeats.” Ruby’s eyes snapped open in shock but before she could react blind Ruby flipped her over her back causing a loud thud, turning towards the rest a Crescent Rose appeared in her hand except it was dripping with blood. What followed was the sound of the trio also drawing their weapons while standing defensively.

The girl laughed at their attempts to defend themselves. “You really think you can stop me in my own head!” she continued laughing to mock them. As she stepped forward the sound of Crescent Rose extending into its full form could be hear except from behind the girl, what quickly followed was a slashing sound and metal meeting flesh and the scraping of metal into the ground. The blind Ruby’s smile dropped as she looked down, her foot had become trapped in the ground and she could feel blood running from whatever had pinned it. The others could see Ruby stood behind her, she had swung her own Crescent Rose down into the girls foot.

“RUN!” she shouted to the three who followed their leaders promptly running towards the exit. Behind them they could hear the blind Ruby laugh. She ripped her foot clean off her own leg leaving it pinned into the ground with the scythe before stumbling over, another foot quickly grew back except this was black with red veins as if it was a Grimm leg. The girl quickly got back to her feat turning to her original, both raised their scythes for a fight.

“They don’t love you, you know, once they realize what you have done, they’ll abandon you or worse kill you, better to do it to them first.”

“I don’t care, they’re my family now and I’m not gonna fail them again.”

The blind Ruby scoffed in response before activating her semblance and striking at Ruby.

The trio dashed across the room quickly coming to the exit, Weiss and Yang quickly undid the bolts keeping it closed before turning to look at their leader. What they saw was a blur of reds clashing, one a noticeably darker shade than Ruby’s, the two blurs were clashing and bouncing around often crashing into the walls before recovering and reactivating their semblance.

Weiss turned towards Blake whispering in the hope the blind Ruby wouldn’t hear.

Blake nodded and ran back over to the two Ruby’s.

“RUBY!” she shouted cause the two to stop and look towards the Faunus girl. Blake unleashed rounds from her weapon at the blind girl peppering her with bullets that she was forced to block with her aura, running as she fired, she grabbed onto Ruby.

“We’re leaving!”

Enraged at the statement the blind girl charged at the two smashing into and shattering the clone Blake had left behind, as the girl shook off the shards Blake grabbed her wrapping her arms around the girl pinning her hands to her side, activating her semblance again she left behind a stone clone that kept the girl trapped momentarily while Ruby used her own semblance to rush the two through the open exit door following Weiss and Yang who quickly slammed the door shut. Weiss spawned a gravity glyph in front of the door, as soon as the glyph appeared a crash rang out from the other side along with wailing and screaming, soon you could hear the clicking of the bolts relocking and Weiss released the glyph.

The group breathed a collective sigh before turning around, they came face to face with a Beacon Hospital Ambulance. Realizing they were outside they ran around to the front of the Hospital meeting up with Raven. Before anyone could speak a cracking sound could be heard, the 5 of them looked up to the roof of the hospital which had split open spreading debris everywhere, Ruby turned to the group.

“You guys need to go now!”

Raven turned slashing her sword out in front of her opening a portal. Weiss ran over to Ruby putting her hands in her own and resting her forehead on Ruby’s.

“Will you be okay?” she whispered.

Ruby nodded softly. “Don’t worry about me, you saved me, now it’s my turn to save myself.”

She pushed Weiss off her slightly.

“Now go. All of you.”

The three girls followed Raven into the portal.

…

The three of them and Raven suddenly gasped as they released their hands from each other, Yang spun around in shock realizing they were all back in Haven Academy’s hall.

“Are you okay, did it not work?” asked the surprised voice of Oscar.

Yang looked down at the kid confused. “not work? We were gone for ages.”

“Maybe for you but for us only a couple of seconds passed”

Yang went to respond but was distracted by a gasp from Weiss.

Weiss had fallen to her knees in front of Ruby who had only just regained consciousness. Ruby was the first to break the uneasy silence that had fallen across the group.

She spoke quietly as her voice threatened to break, she kept her face hidden behind her hair as she looked down at the ground.

“Can you guys release me please?”

Blake took a step behind Ruby holding onto her ribbon that kept the girl’s hands pinned behind her.

“Why?” she asked concerned they had failed.

Ruby raised her head causing her hair to part to the sides, tears were flowing freely from her eyes as she looked straight at Weiss.

“So, I can hug my partner please.” She cracked out.

Blake unspun the ribbon and in an instant Ruby activated her semblance sending petals everywhere. She crashed into Weiss causing the smaller girl to make an audible oof as she was knocked back onto the floor. Ruby had wrapped her arms around Weiss how had reciprocated with her own.

“I’m sorry” Ruby repeated multiple times until the soft shushing of Weiss stopped her, Weiss was running a hand through Ruby’s hair comfortingly.

“You have nothing to apologise for.”

 


End file.
